Hello,everyone,I am a new member of the community,I am in hangzhou,China,I wish to do my best to introduce chinese teas to you.
Today first,I will tell you something about Keemun black teas

I often heard foreign tea drinkers said they easily got confused by Keemun's grading.Yes,this is a really complicated issue which profiteers tend to take advantage of to screw you.So if you are a Keemun lover, you'd better gain an insight into it.Keemun Black Tea is graded in an unique way instead of the way of FOP,OP etcs,which is commonly used.Unlike FOP,OP to grade tea mainly according to the size of leaves(whole leaves,broken leaves,fannings and dust),the criteria of keemun grading is so complicated that it divides Keemun into up to ten grades:hao ya A,hao ya B,special grade,and grade 1~7.The highest grade is hao ya A while the 7th grade is lowest.

> Unlike FOP,OP to grade tea mainly according to the size
> of leaves(whole leaves,broken leaves,fannings and dust),the criteria of
> keemun grading is so complicated that it divides Keemun into up to ten
> grades:hao ya A,hao ya B,special grade,and grade 1~7.The highest grade
> is hao ya A while the 7th grade is lowest.
>
> Richard Zhang

Thanks for the grading info! I've heard of the hao ya A and B
grading, but the grades 1-7 are new to me.

Can you give more information on what identifies each particular
grade? Is it the standard leaf size and quality or does it have more
to do with origin, plucking season, or 100% based on taste?

-Charles

Nice to talk with you about Keemun grading.As I mentioned above ,keemun is graded in an unique way rather than the common criteria of op,FOP,etcs.In fact ,the criteria of keemun grading is of quality inspection while the FOP,op is based on the shape of tea leaves.The keemun black tea we Chinese commonly refer to is in whole leaf style and it can be included in FOP.
Keemun grading involves a large numble of variables which can mainly be divided into two categories.One is related to the appearance of the dried tea,the other is related to the essentials of tea.All of these variables guided tea tasters to grade teas.
So keemun grading is a refined work which relys on the sharp sense of sight smell,touch and taste of tea tasters
More of the grading information can be found in my website vicony teas .You can find keemun black tea of various grades there,not just Hao Ya A and Hao Ya B which are two highest grades.If you have more questions ,don't hesitate to contact me