What is Orange Pekoe tea?
This is a categorization of the leaf grade. Depending on the way a leaf is picked- whether by humans or by machines- tea can be called orthodox or CTC (which stands for crush, tear, curl). Orthodox method means that humans went out into the tea gardens and picked the leaves. All of Numi’s teas are orthodox picked. Tea gardens are usually huge fields full of tea bushes that grow about waist high (In some regions of China they let the trees grow wild, and climb up them to pick the leaves). Pluckers go down the rows with a basket and pluck the top two leaves and the bud from the top-most most branches. Grading teas means sorting them according to how well they stay in this “whole” condition.
