Flowery Orange Pekoe
FOP is the grade every other letter in the tip family is measured against: GFOP, TGFOP, FTGFOP and SFTGFOP are all FOP with progressively more tip, not different teas. It is also the single most recognisable orthodox whole-leaf grade on a real shelf.
What it is
Fine, tender young leaf, the end bud and first two leaves of a new shoot, rolled with a correct proportion of tip, the delicate pale end pieces of the bud.
Where you meet it
On Darjeeling, Assam and Ceylon orthodox packaging, usually as the base of a longer grade name: GFOP, TGFOP and the rest are all FOP with a qualifier in front.
How to read it
Read FOP as the starting point of the tip ladder rather than a grade on its own footing. Every heavier-lettered grade above it is the same base pluck with more tip.
A common mistake
Assuming FOP names one exact, fixed pluck everywhere it appears. Grading terminology carries no international standard, and even a well-known description of FOP has been given as the end bud and first leaf in one place and the end bud and first two leaves in another.
Sources
- FOP is made from the end bud and first two leaves of each new shoot, rolled with the correct proportion of tip. Pettigrew & Richardson, Tea Classified (2008)
- an earlier description of the same grade names only the end bud and first leaf. Pettigrew, The Tea Companion (2004)