Broken Orange Pekoe
BOP is the broken grade most people have actually tasted, even if they have never seen the letters. It is the leading grade behind a great deal of ordinary Assam and Ceylon tea, and it brews faster and stronger than any whole-leaf grade above it.
What it is
Broken leaf is what remains once the larger whole-leaf grades have been sifted out through graduated mesh screens. BOP is the broken-grade analogue of Orange Pekoe: smaller particles, sifted rather than left whole, giving a quicker and more assertive infusion than a whole-leaf grade of the same origin.
Where you meet it
Extremely widely, across Assam, Ceylon and African orthodox production. It is one of the two or three grade abbreviations an ordinary tea drinker is most likely to have actually seen printed on a box.
How to read it
Read the 'Broken' in the name as a description of particle size, not of quality. Broken grades brew faster and stronger because of surface area, not because they are a lesser tea; grading terminology tracks leaf size, and different-size pieces of the same tea are the same quality, brewing at different speeds.
A common mistake
Assuming a broken grade is automatically a lower grade than a whole-leaf one. Size and quality are separate axes, and a broken grade is frequently prized for exactly the strength and speed a whole-leaf grade cannot give.
Sources
- broken leaf grades are what is left after the larger leaf grades have been sifted out, and different-size particles from the same tea are equal in quality, brewing only at different speeds. Pettigrew & Richardson, Tea Classified (2008)