Reading the Tea Leaves

In my posts I often refer to high or low grade teas.  Besides learning to identify correctly different tea categories, it’s good to have some idea of standards not just within each category but within each varietal or sub-varietal.

Teas from Sri Lanka and India are accompanied by terminology that is specific and telling: BOPF, TGFOP, SFTGFOP and so on; all of these abbreviations refer to the type of leaf and give an idea of quality.  TGFOP means Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, which has a better leaf than the Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP), which surpasses the Orange Pekoe Leaf (OP).  (I return to what these terms mean in another post.)

China, the tea region I know best, uses a different grading system.  To be sure, there are still BOP’s (Broken Orange Pekoe)  and FOP’s, but for its specialty teas, there are markers of grades that are fairly standard and still quite reliable.

So when you are shopping for a nice Jasmine leaf tea or a Dragonwell (Lungching) Green or a Keemun Black, how do you judge the quality or grade? How do you evaluate the tea leaves? In other posts I will give guidelines about what to look for in buying specific teas.

But first, some background about the grading system used in China for specialty teas.  Up until the early 1990s, tea companies in China were state owned, and only some were granted export licenses. As these firms became privatized, their entrepreneurial owners were freer to promote their teas in new ways.  Long-standing, established tea grades are still in use, but as more growers produce teas that are in high demand, and as more individual tea farmers are able to bring their teas to markets, the grading system has become more muddled in some instances but still dependable in others.

I take Jasmine teas to illustrate the grading system because it is a fairly straightforward category, and even to a tea novice with an uneducated eye, the signs of quality are quite self-evident. Fujian province on the coast was and still is a major producer of Jasmine tea.  Starting from the low end, one finds a restaurant grade that is known by its item number, identifying it as a sixth grade tea.  (Some restaurant or institutional suppliers use a grade lower.)  Anyone who has been served a pot of Jasmine, brewed from leaf tea rather than a tagless teabag, at a Chinese restaurant in this country will have an idea of what this tastes like. It’s quite drinkable and not as bad as it might sound once you know that it is a (gasp!) sixth grade tea.

Yin Hao (Silver Tip) Jasmine

As we move up the ladder, there are the fifth, fourth, third, second, and first grade Jasmine teas. The quality of these grades has remained remarkably consistent for many years from Fujian’s major suppliers.  For Fujian Jasmine, one can continue the climb upward beyond a first grade: there is next a Special Grade, a Swallow’s Tongue Jasmine, a Chun Hao, a Chun Feng, and at the pinnacle is the Yin Hao or Silver Tip Jasmine.  The

1st Grade Jasmine

item numbers corresponding to the various grades are well-known to those in the trade.

Chun Hao Jasmine (a higher grade than Special)

That’s a total of eleven grades just for conventional Jasmine leaf tea.*  And year after year, one could count on the grades conforming to earlier standards, quite a feat given the vagaries of weather and other production issues.

Other major Jasmine tea producing provinces such as Zhejiang, Hunan, and Guangxi have their own grading designations.  Years earlier some companies adopted the item numbers used in Fujian for their own teas.  So the question becomes: how comparable are “first” grade teas from different areas and companies? Repeated sampling by tasting and good storage of samples make this determination less formidable than might first appear.

A 3rd Grade Jasmine (note the dried blossom/petals)

For a consumer who just wants to find a good, dependable Jasmine, however, there is no need to even pursue the matter in such detail.  What is warranted is some basic knowledge about what to look for. Here are some guidelines for one category, Jasmine leaf teas:

A 5th Grade Jasmine

Chances are, and perhaps fortunately so, you won’t see a 6th grade Jasmine at your neighborhood tea shop.

A 5th grade Jasmine might show up, although it is unlikely to be billed as such.  You will see whole blossoms of the dried, spent Jasmine; stems are easily visible, and leaf size is uneven.

With the 4th grade Jasmine, you will see fewer stems, but dried flowers and petals will be present, and leaves are not very uniform, although better shaped than the 5th grade tea.

A 3rd grade Jasmine is readily found in many tea retailers’ stock.  The tea flavor is good, and the Jasmine fragrance is prominent.  Fewer flowers remain, having been removed after scenting, and you will see Jasmine petals.

I have not seen much 2nd grade Jasmine sold in loose form.  The uniformity of the leaves improves significantly.

By the time one gets around to a 1st grade Jasmine, and it should be easy to find in stores, one will notice that most of the flowers have been removed, a laborious step in the tea’s processing.  (See my post “In Summer’s Heat.”)  This is a good value tea, good for an everyday cup, and by no means very costly (or at least, it shouldn’t be); expect to pay $10-12/lb.

Beyond the 1st grade Jasmine, the quality of the leaves is upgraded dramatically.  Examine the leaves and you will see finely twisted leaves with good uniformity; there has been sorting.  There should be no spent Jasmine flowers left behind among the tea leaves; there may be a few petals, but the blossoms have been removed, leaving only the tea — more tea for your dollar.

In the top three grades – Chun Hao, Chun Feng, Yin Hao (and your retailer may have created other names; see my post on “What’s in a Name?”) – the leaves will show a silvery dappling, since these are tender tippy sproutings.  The Jasmine bouquet will be very fine, since these teas are scented up to seven times, and keep in mind that the flowers are removed after the scenting process.  (One exception is a tea known as Jasmine Snowflakes: after the Jasmine used to scent the tea is removed, a fresh batch of hand-pulled petals are added to the tea, creating a lacy, gossamer effect.)

So  perhaps it matters little whether the Jasmine you are buying comes from one province rather than another. This may be a fine point for tea traders and brokers: the tea flavor will vary from one area to another.  While concern about this borders on nitpicking, a proper buyer ought to know that the Fujian Jasmine will have a stronger tea flavor, while the Zhejiang Jasmine will have a lighter tea character.

For the consumer who is shopping, look at the uniformity of the leaves; are they fine or relatively thick and coarse? Are stems visible? What is the proportion of flowers — quite a few or only a few? Only petals to be seen? Do the leaves show any silvery or white tips?

Jasmine Snowflakes: petals added AFTER scenting

Your local tea retailer is unlikely to advertise the grade of the Jasmine on offer unless it is a 1st grade tea or higher.  As mentioned above, the retailer may even create a new name for the Jasmine it sells.  Still, it doesn’t hurt to ask about the grade you see, and don’t be put off by the reply that is a 3rd grade or “just” a 1st grade.  Both of these are emminently drinkable, enjoyable Jasmines.  In fact, if restaurants could be persuaded to use a 4th or 3rd grade Jasmine, what an improvement that would be for all of us.  (For more on this topic, see the post on Restaurant Teas.)

At the higher end of the spectrum, if you are paying for Jasmine Silver Needles, Jasmine Pearls, or Jasmine Curled Dragon Silvertips, be aware that your money is being spent on a very high quality Green tea that is the basis of these products, and secondarily, for the repeated scenting and for the extra steps taken to remove the spent flowers from the leaves.  So do take a moment to examine and appreciate the beauty of the brewed leaves.

A premium Jasmine; note silvery downy hairs.

*Note: here I am excluding the even fancier Jasmines such as pearls or needles.  In this group one should apply the same standards — look at the wet leaves to gauge how much tip is there relative to the stem? what is the proportion of buds or budsets to full leaves?