Imagine you on a steep hillside in Sri Lanka, overlooking the stunning views of the surrounding lush tea gardens. Your companion offers you a cup of Classic Orange Pekoe Tea. You accept gratefully, exhausted from a day’s worth of hiking. The tea’s crisp, smooth texture revives your body and soul, and you manage to gather the strength to continue along your journey.
Orange Pekoe, the most famous of the Ceylon teas, is not actually a flavour or type of black tea, but rather refers to a traditional grading term. Following the traditional classification, we only use FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe) and OP (Orange Pekoe) grades to make this version of Orange Pekoe. True Orange Pekoe is comprised of the second leaf on the tea shoot. The term "Orange" originates from the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau. Pekoe is a Chinese word describing the spring buds of the tea bush which are covered with down.