East India Orange Pekoe

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Of course, we cannot blame you if you’ve made the same mistake as many and assumed that Orange Pekoe is a flavor of tea. Something about it just sounds exotic and delicious, doesn’t it? But we’re here to tell you that that’s actually not the case: Orange Pekoe is in fact a grade of tea, a way to tell how good one tea is from the other based on the leaves themselves.
To the uninitiated, tea leaf grading might seem like an extraordinarily confusing process. There are dozens of different grades, such whole leaf grades, in which unbroken leaves are categorized based on their size; broken leaf grades, in which broken pieces are assessed by their quality; fannings grades, in which even smaller pieces are assessed; and dust grades, which is just as it sounds. In such a complicated system, you might be wondering where Orange Pekoe ranks.
Answer: right at the top! Orange Pekoe actually refers to a group of teas generally hailing from Sri Lanka,...
Well, we’re finally home! After nearly two months in India for us, and a long month visiting the Idulgashinna tea garden in Sri Lanka, we’re back to the blogosphere—and we’ve got stories to tell. Keep an eye on the blog for a little taste of our tea-related travels!
“CHIIIIIIIIYE!“CHIIIIIIIIIIYE!“It’s a constant call riding the trains of India, a hoot from the side of the street, a jeer that’ll grab your attention no matter where you roam in the country—chai-wallahs (that is, tea vendors!) wanting to sell their goods to all passers-by.Let’s clear up the headway a bit before we get too deep. No, “chai” as we know it in North America isn’t the only type of tea in India. Chai actually means tea. Specifically, the Indian kind where they start with a basic loose leaf tea—say, Assam, or Darjeeling, most likely grown...