BOP stands for Broken Orange Pekoe, a black tea grade made from leaves that have been deliberately broken during processing rather than rolled whole.
The Orange Pekoe grading system sorts black tea by leaf size and style, not flavor or quality tier on its own — and BOP sits in the broken-leaf half of that system. Cutting or crushing the leaf exposes more surface area, which means faster, stronger infusions than whole-leaf grades produce in the same amount of time. That makes BOP a workhorse grade: common in everyday black teas, tea bags, and blends where a quick, brisk, full-bodied cup matters more than delicate whole-leaf presentation. It brews darker and faster than whole-leaf grades like FOP, so steeping time is usually shorter to avoid over-extraction.
