Pekoe tea is a high-quality tea made from young leaves and buds, with a forest-like scent and sweet finish. It is graded and can be treated to create black or green tea. Orange pekoe is named after the Dutch Royal House of Orange. Looseleaf pekoe is best for brewing.
Pekoe tea is a fine tea that includes young leaves and buds. When well handled and brewed, the tea has a rich forest-like scent with a hint of bitterness and a sweet finish. Pekoe has long been regarded as one of the finest teas and has always been a popular Chinese export. Most markets carry Pekoe and it is also available in specialty tea shops.
The name “pekoe” comes from the Chinese pek, meaning “white”, and ho, meaning “feather or feathers”. It is a reference to the fine white hairs that appear on tightly coiled young shoots when they are harvested to make pekoe tea. Individual pekoe leaves tend to be quite small and fine and will become thinner when unfurled in hot water. Pekoe itself is also graded, with the highest grade including two tea leaves around a narrow bud.
India, Sri Lanka, and Java all produce this tea, which is sometimes labeled “bud and leaf tea,” in reference to the highest grade available. Once harvested, pekoe can be treated in a variety of ways to create a finished tea. It is usually bruised and allowed to oxidize so that it turns into black tea, although pekoe green tea is also produced in some places. Once the tea is finished, it can be packaged loose-form or broken so that it fits into tea bags.
Many people are familiar with orange pekoe, a rather confusing form of pekoe tea. The orange pekoe is not orange flavored, as one might expect from the name. Rather, the tea is named after the Royal Dutch House of Orange, which was in power when the Dutch East India Company began importing tea. The company wanted to imply that it had associations with the royal family, so it added “orange” to “pekoe.” The ploy made orange Pekoe tea very popular.
Like many black teas, pekoe is best if it can be obtained in free form. Looseleaf tea contains buds and leaves only and does not include stems and fannings from the selection process. Because the leaves need a lot of room to open, a French press is a great tool for making pekoe tea, as it will allow the flavor to ripen. Always heat the container of beer before using it and do not steep pekoe for more than five minutes, as it can become very bitter and tannic.
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