FTGFOP
FTGFOP stands for Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, a high whole-leaf grade for orthodox black tea with many golden tips, used mostly for Darjeeling and Assam.
Definition
FTGFOP stands for Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. It is near the top of the orthodox whole-leaf grading scale used in India and other black tea producing countries. Each letter adds a claim: Orange Pekoe for long whole leaf, Flowery for the presence of tips (buds), Golden for tips that turned gold during processing, Tippy for a high proportion of them, and Finest for the best selection of the grade. The grade is most common on Darjeeling and Assam teas. A number 1 after the grade, as in FTGFOP1, marks the top lot within the grade. SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) goes one step higher and is used by some estates for their best lots. Trade jokes expand FTGFOP as "Far Too Good For Ordinary People." Like all orthodox grades, FTGFOP describes appearance: leaf size, wholeness and tip content. It does not certify flavor, origin or freshness. A FTGFOP1 Darjeeling from a weak year or a mediocre garden can be beaten in the cup by a GFOP from a better one. Grading conventions also vary between estates and countries.
In Depth
Brew FTGFOP Darjeeling at 85-95°C (185-203°F) depending on flush, about 2-2.5 g per 200 ml for 3 minutes. FTGFOP Assam takes boiling water and 4-5 minutes. The whole leaf extracts more slowly than broken grades.
In the dry leaf, look for visible tips: golden in Assam and second flush Darjeeling, silvery or pale in first flush Darjeeling. The tips should be part of the leaf sets, not loose fragments.
Read the rest of the label before trusting the grade: estate, flush, harvest year and invoice number tell you more about the cup. A grade without an estate is a weak quality signal. Grade letters may also be written with a CL suffix for clonal or CH for China type on Darjeeling invoices, which describes the bush rather than the grade.
See Also
- Black Tea Grading
- Darjeeling Labels
- Orthodox Tea Processing