Tea (real tea, from the tea plant, not herbal tea or tisanes (fruit teas)) is primarily graded by the size of the tea leaf particles. This grading holds true whether we are speaking of green, white, oolong, or black tea (I described this different types of teas in past issues). Dust is the lowest grade or tea and is simply tea dust. Tea fannings is the second to lowest grade of tea and consists of small particles of tea. For instance, tea bags, generally contain only tea dust and fannings. Next is broken tea, which are broken leaves, and the highest size grade of tea is whole leaf, or “pekoe”.