Orthodox
Orthodox is the older of the two major black tea manufacturing methods, named for its rolling machine, and it produces every whole-leaf and broken grade on the ladder. Its main modern alternative, CTC, exists specifically to produce something orthodox manufacture does not: small, fast-brewing particles for teabags.
What it is
Manufacture built around a roller: a hopper of withered leaf under pressure, moved eccentrically over a ridged table on its own eccentric path, macerating the leaf without cutting it apart the way CTC or LTP machinery does. A Rotorvane is often used before the rolling stage as a lighter pre-treatment.
Where you meet it
Still the standard method in China, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and much of India, and the sole source of every FOP-family and OP-family grade on this ladder. It is also the method most closely associated with the traditional leaf and broken grades a shopper is likely to have heard of.
How to read it
Read 'orthodox' as a manufacturing method, not a grade or a quality claim. It describes how the leaf was macerated, and orthodox tea spans the full range from SFTGFOP down to the orthodox dust grades.
A common mistake
Assuming orthodox automatically means higher quality than CTC. Orthodox tends to treat the leaf with more respect and produces the whole-leaf grades CTC cannot, but CTC exists to do a different job well, not to do the orthodox job badly.
Sources
- orthodox manufacture uses a roller and is the traditional method of processing black tea, predating CTC and LTP. Willson & Clifford, eds., Tea: Cultivation to Consumption (Chapman & Hall, 1992)