Almost everyone has heard of Orange Pekoe tea. Many believe it to be a kind of tea thanks to Thomas Lipton’s brilliant tea marketing strategy he created at the turn of the last century. Actually, it is a grade of tea leaf. The word “Pekoe” is believed to have originated in China during the beginning of the tea trade with the West. “Pekoe” is quite possibly the corruption of the Chinese word “Bai Hao,” which means white tip. The tea industry has come up with many initials and combinations of initials to describe the leaf grade. The more initials a tea leaf may have attached to it does not necessarily mean it is a better tea, it’s just easier to describe it in an acronym.

SFTGFOP – Silver (Super) Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. Suggests a superior quality
FTGFOP – Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 
TGFOP – Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 
TGBOP – Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe 
GFBOP – Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
GFOP – Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
GBOP – Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
FBOP – Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
FOP – Flowery Orange Pekoe
BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe 
PS – Pekoe Souchong
OP – Orange Pekoe, one of largest marketed leaf sizes.
P – Pekoe, smaller leaves, darker brew
F – Fannings. This is what you find in most commercial tea bags. It was named as such for the process of throwing the manufactured dried tea in front of large fans. The larger heavier leaves fell first, the fannings were blown further and fell last.
Dust – Found in most commercial tea bags and drinks.
Orthodox – Denotes hand-made tea from plucking to finish.
CTC – Crush Tear Curl. Describes a mechanized way to manufacture a broken leaf black tea.