Broken grade
Broken grade is the system's second tier by particle size, what is left once whole leaf has been sifted out, and it carries most of the FOP family's tip-content letters down into a smaller particle.
What it is
Leaf sifted through a finer mesh than whole leaf, producing particles that brew faster and stronger for the same steep time. The broken grades largely mirror the whole-leaf family's tip-content letters (GFBOP, FBOP and so on), sifted rather than kept whole.
Where you meet it
Widely on Assam, Ceylon and African black tea, most often as BOP, the best-known broken grade of all.
How to read it
Read 'broken' as a statement about particle size and brewing speed, never about quality. It describes how the leaf was sifted, not how good it is.
A common mistake
Treating 'broken' as a synonym for damaged or lower-grade leaf. It names a size class the manufacturing process produces on purpose, sifted for a faster, stronger cup.
Sources
- broken leaf grades refer to what is left after the larger leaf grades have been sifted out. Pettigrew & Richardson, Tea Classified (2008)