SELECTING AND BUYING a good cup of black tea

Black leaf tea is always the preferable alternative for taste and good health. The tea in teabags is often pulverised, releasing excessive amounts of tannin and caffeine, which overpower the natural tea flavour.

Black leaf tea is processed with a gentle rolling action that allows the leaf to release the flavour but not the unwelcome tannin toxins and caffeine.

Buy fresh, large black leaf tea. Health conscious people should always use quality loose leaf tea. Quality loose leaf tea is usually no more than 3 to 5 months old. Some commercial teas and tea bags can be as much as 7 years old.

Why Perfect Cup FOR BUYING TEA?

First and foremost - the quality of the black tea leaf. There are two main species of tea. One is grown at high elevations above sea level, the other is grown on lower elevations or during the monsoon season. Monsoon tea is lower grade and generally used for teabags.

Why should people buy tea from Perfect Cup? Like coffee, tea is also graded and is subject to very strict grading processes. Did you know that there are 12 grades of tea on the open market and only a select few actually get to sample what real tea tastes like?

So if you shop for tea in your local supermarket be warned that what you are buying is obviously of commercial quality. Consumers think that orange pekoe is a blend of tea, but in fact it is only a grade of tea.

Perfect Cup specialises only in the highest grades. Once you have tried teas of this quality, we guarantee you won't buy commercial again.

You will find that fresh tea requires 5 to 10 seconds to brew, whereas commercial teas need between 3 to 5 minutes, and by that time the tea has released so much tannin and caffeine that the natural flavour has been spoiled.

Tea Grades

All teas are graded and fall into one of the following categories:
Mountain-grown
Orthodox     Grading (hand picked teas)
FTGFOPI       first flush
STGFOPI       silver tippy golden flowery orange pekoe
TGFOP 1        tippy golden flowery orange pekoe
Grade 1      
GFOP 1          golden flowery orange pekoe grade 1
FOP 1             flowery orange pekoe grade 1
OP                  orange pekoe
BOP 1             broken orange pekoe grade 1
BOP               broken orange pekoe
WP                 wiry pekoe
P                    pekoe
 
Cut to cut grading (etc) mass picked and produced tea, eg. tea bags, and granulated tea.
Low altitude or monsoon picked tea
TBOP            tippy broken orange pekoe
BOP              broken orange pekoe
OP 1              orange pekoe 1
OP 2             orange pekoe 2