Page 13 - Seniorstoday December 2022 Issue

Pekoe, Broken Orange Pekoe, Flowery
Orange Pekoe, Golden Flowery Orange
Pekoe, Tippy Golden Flowery Orange
Pekoe and Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe.
There are just samplers from a multitude
of other permutations and combinations
depending on unique characteristics;
getting into them will only add to the
bewilderment. Similarly, Pu’er, Oolong,
Rooibos, Sancha, Sencha and others are
variants from different parts of the world.
To pique interest, matcha is a powdered
green tea made popular by Japan. Some of
you may have imbibed it.
Another interesting fact is that ‘Orange’
in the grades has nothing to do with the
Orange fruit or its flavour. It just refers to
the Dutch Royal House of Orange - Nassau,
who got tea into Europe and popularised
it about three centuries ago. The Orange
Shennong was the name of a Chinese prefix has stuck on in tea grading since
emperor, who ruled around 2737 then, more as an honorific. Pekoe has its
BC, known for discovering farming etymology from the Chinese word pek-ho
implements and various herbal cures. He which means white-down or white-downy
liked to boil the water before drinking for hair on the young and small tea plants.
health benefits. Legend has it that a leaf fell The tea unravel does not end here, there
accidentally into the boiling water, but was
not noticed by his servants. On drinking
that water, Shennong noticed the change
in taste and started experimenting with
it only to discover its health benefits. He
soon ensured the spread of the tea leaves
cultivation and harvesting for the benefit
of his people. The rest, as they say, is
history. Not that this legend is universally
accepted by people in North and North
East India or several other Asian countries
like Vietnam and Japan who all claim to
have been cultivating and drinking tea for
centuries.
To set at rest the curiosity about the
acronyms; OP, BOP, FOP, GFOP, TGFOP,
FBOP are various grades of tea. Orange

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #42 | DECEMBER 2022 13