by Martin Haschka

Created on: August 11, 2009

For those that are new to the habit of drinking black tea, the variety available on the shelves of supermarkets or drugstores can be rather confusing. Brands like Twinings and Lipton compete with each other, sometimes giving their teas fancy names to associate with desired emotions or expectations. Black teas in supermarkets are typically blended, mixed from different types of tea and different regions all around the world. Sometimes flavours are added to enhance the taste or distract from it, depending on the perspective.

The choice of available black teas becomes even more confusing when you enter a store specialised in selling teas from all over the world. You'll find teas originating from a multitude of regions sometimes paired with a wide selection of qualities. The decision what tea you would enjoy drinking can easily become nothing more than an educated guess.

For a beginner black teas can be arranged into three categories: (1) plain black teas from a single region or plantation, (2) blends of teas from different areas containing sometimes a mix of qualities, (3) blends of teas enhanced with artificial or natural flavours.

More advanced tea drinkers usually look deeper into categories determined by grading and origin. This overview will concentrate on the basic, most widely used grading system and sample some of the most important locations of origin.

The lowest of all tea grades consisting only of very small particles of tealeaves is 'Dust'. It is usually strong in flavor so you don't need much of it to brew a cup of tea. Many people in Egypt favor this grade. 'Dust' is produced during the process of deliberately crushing the dried leaves of the tea plant, a method that is for example widely used in Africa. The reason for crushing the leaves is to enhance the flavor of the brewed tea.

If the tea particles are around the size of 1 mm, the result is graded "Fannings'. Usually it's also strong in taste. Larger pieces of tealeaves or very small ones are designated 'Broken'. You will find all three grades in teabags, for they are ideally suited for that kind of packaging and brewing.

If you want to experience the highest grade of all, you select whole leave teas, very often also designated as Orange Pekoe (OP). This doesn't necessarily mean that you will have tea of the highest possible quality, for the grading scale just designates the condition of the leaves after processing.

The grading scale usually is further enhanced

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