Mondo Knows Facts
Tea grades describe leaf size not quality
Terms like orange pekoe and fannings refer to how the leaf was sorted Tea grading grew out of the trade, where buyers needed a common vocabulary for leaf size. Whole leaf grades such as orange pekoe sit at the top of the list, followed by broken leaves, fannings and dust, which brew faster and darker. None of the words guarantees a better cup, and a fine darjeeling may carry a modest looking grade. It sits in Mondo's food collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: tea, grading, trade
Tea grades describe leaf size not quality: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Terms like orange pekoe and fannings refer to how the leaf was sorted. The figure is taken from British Library, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a food fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.