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Beings as I am still learning how to brew tea, perhaps someone could instruct me in this lingo that boggles my mind. For example, what is a dancing tea leaf? And these acronyms? I am in the military and still completely lost! Since I am lost I figured the color fit my mood.

Tea is best when shared!!

Dancing leaf refers to leaves that "dance" in a glass brewing vessel by floating up and/or down. The leaves in this case are sort of needle shaped. They are usually green teas. Click on the DANCING LEAVES link below. Then click on more photos and see a picture of dancing leaves of a rare yellow tea.

DANCING LEAVES

The letters you refer to typically are leaf grades for Indian teas such as Darjeeling. I love Darjeeling, but I pay little attention as long as they are not BOP which is broken orange pekoe...aka, smallish pieces vs. whole leaves.

But BOP can be very good tasting, I just prefer whole leaf for ease of brewing. Higher leaf grade designations do not mean better tasting tea though. This is why I pay little attention to it.

Does this help?

In order to select great tasting tea you really don't need to bother learning the acronyms, it may even help you to have no clue what they mean because they won't worry you. The acronyms simply are means of classifying the size of the leaves and how much they've been broken, they do not reflect on the actual quality/taste of the tea.

But if you are still interested, follow the link for a list of grading acronyms;
http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/inform ... rading.asp

Thanks so much you guys! I am just cleaning up from a trip to my home town, found some great spots there, and checked the board. Right now I am laughing so hard because I took my mother out while I was home and she started telling me that Pekoe was a type of tea, but, thanks to you, I know better! Hahahahahah! Have a great day!


Tea is best when shared

KG wrote:. Right now I am laughing so hard because I took my mother out while I was home and she started telling me that Pekoe was a type of tea, but, thanks to you, I know better! Hahahahahah! Have a great day!

LOL,did you also tell her about dancing leaves?

I first thought that Orange Pekoe was supposed to taste, well, orangy. I kept trying to find OP that tasted like orange, I happen to love oranges. I was very frustrated after trying OP after OP to no avail.

Things like TeaChat were not available back then.

Took a while, but I figured it out eventually. I am sure many of us have humerous TeaStories they could share here on TeaChat.

Didn't ABBA sing a song about a dancing leaf?

Dancing Queen?