Orange Pekoe
Orange Pekoe is the best-known grade abbreviation in the whole system, and also the most misunderstood: it describes a leaf size and harvest point, not a flavour, a blend or a type of tea. On an ordinary shelf it usually just means black tea of an unremarkable grade.
What it is
OP is graded on the leaf itself, harvested once the end bud has already opened into leaf, and it seldom carries tip. That makes it a different pluck from the FOP family above it, not a lesser version of the same one: FOP's letters track how much tip a leaf carries, while OP is defined by leaf size and harvest timing instead. FP sits alongside OP in that leaf-graded half of the ladder, but for a different reason again, since its distinguishing trait is how the leaf is rolled rather than its size or pluck timing.
Where you meet it
Everywhere. OP is the grade name most likely to appear on ordinary retail black tea in English-speaking markets, frequently used as though it names a blend or a style rather than a leaf size.
How to read it
Read 'Orange' as part of the grade's name, not as a flavour or a colour claim. Its origin is usually traced to the Dutch House of Orange, the royal family of the first European country to trade tea into Europe, though that derivation is a plausible tradition rather than a settled fact. 'Pekoe' comes from the Chinese pek-ho or baihao, the fine silvery down on the underside of young tea leaves.
A common mistake
Treating 'Orange Pekoe' as a type of tea or a flavour, the single most common grading error outside the trade. It is a leaf-size and pluck-timing grade, nothing more: any black tea can be sold as Orange Pekoe once it is the right size.
Sources
- OP contains long, pointed leaves that are larger than in FOP and have been harvested when the end buds open into leaf; OP seldom contains tips. Pettigrew, The Tea Companion (2004)
- Orange comes, the author suggests, from Holland's House of Orange, the royal family of the first European country to import and re-export tea. Pettigrew, The Tea Companion (2004)
- Pekoe derives from the Chinese pek-ho or baihao, the covering of tiny silvery hairs on the underside of young tea leaves. Pettigrew & Richardson, Tea Classified (2008)