Dust (tea)
Encyclopedia
Dust tea is a low-quality grade of fine grained black tea
. Traditionally these were treated as the rejects of the manufacturing process in making high quality leaf tea like the Orange Pekoe
. When leaves break or get crushed during the manufacturing process they are variously labelled as Broken Orange Pekoe, Fannings
and dust based on the particle size. The smaller the particle, the lower the quality.
This traditionally low quality tea has however experienced a huge demand in the developing world in the last century as the practice of tea drinking became popular. Cheap tea stalls in India
and the South Asian sub-continent, and Africa prefer dust tea because it is cheap and also produces a very strong brew - consequently more cups are obtained per measure of tea dust.
Black tea
Black tea is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties.All four varieties are made from leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the...
. Traditionally these were treated as the rejects of the manufacturing process in making high quality leaf tea like the Orange Pekoe
Orange Pekoe
Orange pekoe , also spelled "pecco" is a term used in the Western tea trade to describe a particular genre of black teas . Despite a purported Chinese origin, these grading terms are typically used for teas from Sri Lanka, India and countries other than China; they are not generally known within...
. When leaves break or get crushed during the manufacturing process they are variously labelled as Broken Orange Pekoe, Fannings
Fannings
Fannings are small pieces of tea that are left over after higher grades of tea are gathered to be sold. Fannings with extremely small particles are sometimes called dusts. Fannings and dusts are considered the lowest grades of tea, separated from broken-leaf teas which have larger pieces of the...
and dust based on the particle size. The smaller the particle, the lower the quality.
This traditionally low quality tea has however experienced a huge demand in the developing world in the last century as the practice of tea drinking became popular. Cheap tea stalls in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and the South Asian sub-continent, and Africa prefer dust tea because it is cheap and also produces a very strong brew - consequently more cups are obtained per measure of tea dust.