Why should people buy our tea? Well, like coffee, tea is graded and is subject to very strict grading procedures. 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?

Here is your opportunity to fully understand what makes a good cup of tea.

There are two types of tea. One is grown on high elevated ground whilst the other is grown on lower elevations or during the monsoon season. This monsoon tea is mainly used for teabags and is of very poor quality.

To understand tea, you must first realize what gives tea it's flavor. Every tea leaf has veins running through it and in those veins are cells that carry all of the tannins, toxins and caffeine when the tea is carefully rolled, just enough not to shear or damage the veins so that the natural flavor is not spoiled. Having the pulverized into dust for the use of tea bags, releases all these nasties which over-power the natural flavor of tea. That's why some tea bags carry artificial preservatives to enhance the flavor.

What's more, the cost of the average packet of 100 teabags is made up of only 37% for the tea while 63% is for the paper, tag, packaging and profit.

To the tea connoisseur - always insist on buying large leaf tea that is prepared with a gentle rolling action that maximizes the intrinsic flavor. This is one very good reason why the health conscious should always use quality loose leaf tea.

With so much competition in the market place there are again two types of distributors. The specialists only sells quality estate tea whilst the commercialism sells blends of low grade highland tea with, in most cases, monsoon picked tea. Also the specialist sells tea that is no more than 3 - 5 months old, whereas the commercial teas can be anywhere up to 7 years old.

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

So if you shop for tea in the 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 is only a grade of tea. All tea graded and fall into one of the following categories,

Mountain Grown
Orthodox - Grading (hand picked teas)

• FTGFOP 1 - First flush
• STGFOP 1 - Silver tippy golden flowery orange pekoe
• TGFOP 1 - Tippy golden flowery orange pekoe

• GFOP 1 - Golden flowery orange pekoe grade 1
• FOP 1 - Flowery orange pekoe grade 1
• OP 1 - Orange pekoe
• BOP 1 - Broken orange pekoe grade 1
• BOP - Broken orange pekoe
• WP - Wirey pekoe
• P - Pekoe
• Fathings Dust - (most teabags use twelfth grade)
• Cut to cut gradings (ctc) mass picked and produced tea, eg tea bags and granulated tea.

• TBOP - Tippy broken orange pekoe
• BOP - Broken orange pekoe
• OP 1 - Orange pekoe 1
• OP 2 - Orange pekoe 2
• Fathings Dust - (very low grade teabags)