FTGOP??

[Kurry]

Hi!
I just bought a green Darjeeling tea, which my local tea store called "FTGOP 1 Makaibari Estate".

What is FTGOP short for?
Flowery Tippy Golden Orange Pekoe? or Fine Tippy.. ?
What should I expect from the leaves out of this information? They should be whole medium size leaves? Or can they be broken as well? And if they where broken, shouldn't there be a "B" in the description, like with the black Darjeelings? oh, and the 1 number signals its a first flush tea? Or am I wrong..?

[Tead Off]

Hi!
I just bought a green Darjeeling tea, which my local tea store called "FTGOP 1 Makaibari Estate".

What is FTGOP short for?
Flowery Tippy Golden Orange Pekoe? or Fine Tippy.. ?
What should I expect from the leaves out of this information? They should be whole medium size leaves? Or can they be broken as well? And if they where broken, shouldn't there be a "B" in the description, like with the black Darjeelings? oh, and the 1 number signals its a first flush tea? Or am I wrong..?

Fine tippy: tips of buds should be present. Not necessarily whole leaf. 1 is first flush. Makaibari is a mixed bag. They are one of the biggest growers and biggest marketers of all. They sell more tea than they produce. How do they do that? By mixing in leaves from lowland tea gardens and packaging it under their name. They do have some very good teas, though. Their Silver Tips is very good. You have to pay premium prices to get their better teas.

[thomas909]

the 1 after the leaf grade doesn't indicate the flush but is sometimes applied after sorting to indicated it's the highest grade coming out of that sorting. allot of 2 & 3 flush have that indication to.

FTGOP seems to me to be a special grade of OP. witch are the first 2 leaves after the buds. bigger leaves than FOP.
But hard to be sure off as green teas don't follow the same sorting as blacks and every estate uses other indications for it.

Ideally a green tea should not have broken leafs, but it will rather depend on how careful the processing has been done.

broken grades usually have much more fragmented leaves

[Tead Off]

the 1 after the leaf grade doesn't indicate the flush but is sometimes applied after sorting to indicated it's the highest grade coming out of that sorting. allot of 2 & 3 flush have that indication to.

FTGOP seems to me to be a special grade of OP. witch are the first 2 leaves after the buds. bigger leaves than FOP.
But hard to be sure off as green teas don't follow the same sorting as blacks and every estate uses other indications for it.

Ideally a green tea should not have broken leafs, but it will rather depend on how careful the processing has been done.

broken grades usually have much more fragmented leaves

Your correct about the 1 designation after the leaf grade. Thanks for that. Either I misunderstood what a Darjeeling tea seller told me or he misunderstood my question about the number designation. I do remember buying 2nd flush teas with the 1 after the grade.

In Darjeeling, many of the teas don't have grading letters at all, no matter what type of tea or flush. I found very few teas labeled with anything but name of tea garden, sometimes with or without the flush. Perhaps the gardens sell with the grading system but it doesn't always transfer over to the retail sellers.

[thomas909]

In Darjeeling, many of the teas don't have grading letters at all, no matter what type of tea or flush. I found very few teas labeled with anything but name of tea garden, sometimes with or without the flush. Perhaps the gardens sell with the grading system but it doesn't always transfer over to the retail sellers.

not every tea coming out of production is going to taste good enuf to be sold as single batch. most of the tea produced by a garden is going to be blended from different batches. A garden is going to at least when packing and storing the tea indicate dj & leaf grade numers.
I Don't know if an garden always sells by batch or they do the blending.

[Tead Off]

In Darjeeling, many of the teas don't have grading letters at all, no matter what type of tea or flush. I found very few teas labeled with anything but name of tea garden, sometimes with or without the flush. Perhaps the gardens sell with the grading system but it doesn't always transfer over to the retail sellers.

not every tea coming out of production is going to taste good enuf to be sold as single batch. most of the tea produced by a garden is going to be blended from different batches. A garden is going to at least when packing and storing the tea indicate dj & leaf grade numers.
I Don't know if an garden always sells by batch or they do the blending.

Don't understand what you are saying. The gardens sell by invoice #. This indicates when the tea is picked as there are many pickings. Which picking is best can only be known by inspection and tasting. It seems the better gardens would sort and grade to a higher standard, but, what I am saying is the retailers in Darjeeling don't always put the grading on the labels of their teas. So, without asking, you wouldn't know the grading.

In India, all kinds of funny business goes on. Blending goes on at the wholesale level by the gardens. But, I wouldn't put it past some retailers to blend some teas for export, thereby diluting the quality. At the base of the mountains leading up to Darjeeling, there is a whole tea industry going on at low elevation. I am told that this tea gets blended by certain tea gardens and exported to Europe and Japan and sold under some of the high end names. Aside from this, there is a lot of good tea produced in Darjeeling, many are organic and whole leaf.

[a.serrao]

Makaibari is a mixed bag. They are one of the biggest growers and biggest marketers of all. They sell more tea than they produce. How do they do that? By mixing in leaves from lowland tea gardens and packaging it under their name.

What's the source of that info?

[Tead Off]

Makaibari is a mixed bag. They are one of the biggest growers and biggest marketers of all. They sell more tea than they produce. How do they do that? By mixing in leaves from lowland tea gardens and packaging it under their name.

What's the source of that info?

Just about every tea seller in Darjeeling.

[a.serrao]

Just about every tea seller in Darjeeling.

Please don't be too generic. It's extremely interesting.

[Chip]

Darjeeling Trivia 101. Much more Darjeeling tea is SOLD versus Darjeeling tea PRODUCED.

Talk about watering down the product.

This has been common knowledge for years, and nobody seems willing or able to dispute it ... so it is seemingly just accepted as the way it is.

[a.serrao]

Darjeeling Trivia 101. Much more Darjeeling tea is SOLD versus Darjeeling tea PRODUCED.

Talk about watering down the product.

This has been common knowledge for years, and nobody seems willing or able to dispute it ... so it is seemingly just accepted as the way it is.

So the real non adulterated Darjeeling tea where it goes?
That is: is it possible to buy authentic Darjeeling 100% tea?

[Tead Off]

Darjeeling Trivia 101. Much more Darjeeling tea is SOLD versus Darjeeling tea PRODUCED.

Talk about watering down the product.

This has been common knowledge for years, and nobody seems willing or able to dispute it ... so it is seemingly just accepted as the way it is.

So the real non adulterated Darjeeling tea where it goes?
That is: is it possible to buy authentic Darjeeling 100% tea?

Of course. www.teaemporium.com is a reliable seller from Darjeeling carrying high quality teas. Most of the blended teas are sold wholesale in large quantities.

[edkrueger]

Darjeeling Trivia 101. Much more Darjeeling tea is SOLD versus Darjeeling tea PRODUCED.

Talk about watering down the product.

This has been common knowledge for years, and nobody seems willing or able to dispute it ... so it is seemingly just accepted as the way it is.

So the real non adulterated Darjeeling tea where it goes?
That is: is it possible to buy authentic Darjeeling 100% tea?

Of course. http://www.teaemporium.com is a reliable seller from Darjeeling carrying high quality teas. Most of the blended teas are sold wholesale in large quantities.

Almost everything that lists an estate will be from that estate.