"Jon P Nossen" > wrote in message
> > Sri Lanka produce a lot of CTC teas.
>
> As I just wrote, about 6 per cent of the Ceylon tea production
> is of the CTC type. Meaning that 94 per cent is "orthodox".

Dear Jon:

I didn't disagree that Sri Lanka produce more Orthodox compare to CTC.
Sri Lankan tea industry is export oriented whether Indian tea industry
is local market oriented. Though both of the countries export their
very best teas to the foreign country. Interesting part is all South
Asian country export tea and also import tea from each other for cost
effectiveness. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka- all this countries
export their good teas and import less quality(mainly CTC) teas from
each other. Sri Lanka's last three years CTC production jumped in
every year- CTC cumulative production during 2003-2004= 2,082,020Kg.
They are also increasing their Orthodox teas. Sri Lankan people prefer
CTC or dust more then orthodox the reason is- cultural, more robust
and strong taste. I am from that region and have been traveled all
this countries. I have seen this. Sri Lanka is trying to reduce their
dependency from imported teas for local market, that's why their CTC
production is jumping every other year. The whole South Asian tea
culture is- they like CTC kind of tea. In India some people like to
blend CTC and Orthodox Darjeeling.

> > In domestic market CTC tea is the most popular one because
> local people like strong, robust cup.
>
> It's not that simple. A lot of the "orthodox" tea (namely that
> processed with the Rotorvane machine) is made into small
> particles which gives a strong, robust tea with comparably less
> flavour. But this is not CTC tea.

First of all, their is no standardized grading system. In south Asia
BOP always graded as CTC tea. In this point, I know what I am talking
about. The Orthodox grading start from SFTGFOP1 China to OP1 or OP.
But BOP is a widely used CTC grading around South Asian tea growing
countries. Orthodox tea can never give the same strong, robust cup
compare to CTC (BOP or dust etc.) I am not saying CTC is better then
Orthodox. I am trying to explain, the reality and South Asian tea
culture.

>
> > Actually BOP is not a orthodox grade, this grading system is
> for CTC tea-
> BOP(Broken Orange Pekoe).
>
> This is wrong. BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) has been used as a
> grade in orthodox manucfacturing for a very long time, even
> though it is nowadays also used for CTC teas. In Sri Lanka a BOP
> tea is usually "orthodox" Rotorvane-processed. However, due to
> market demand the BOP teas from Sri Lanka/Ceylon nowadays
> consist of much smaller particles than before, making them
> difficult to distinguish from BOPF (Fannings) and even Dust.

I am from Bangladesh and I was close to tea growing community, this
year in January2004 I was in Kolkata for some research about tea and
last year I was in Colombo- I never heard or seen BOP has been used as
Orthodox grading.


Ripon
Vienna,VA