Assam CTC Tea

BP1, PF1, PD & D1 — malty, strong, milk-tea grade

CTC — crush, tear, curl — passes withered leaf through toothed rollers that shred rather than roll it, producing hard granular particles that release colour and strength within a minute or two in the cup. Roughly nine-tenths of Assam's crop is made this way, and it is the reason Assam CTC is the default tea in a teabag and in a cup of chai. Grades run by particle size: BP1 (Broken Pekoe 1) is the largest and most open, PF1 (Pekoe Fannings 1) smaller and faster-brewing, PD (Pekoe Dust) and D1 finer still and used where speed and colour matter most. The cup is the Assam signature — malty, brisk, deep coppery-red — and it stands up to milk in a way lighter teas cannot. Contracts specify garden or estate mark, grade, invoice number, liquor and infusion assessed by a taster, moisture at 6.5% maximum, and ash and water-soluble extract to ISO 3720.

Buy Assam CTC when strength and colour per kilo are what you are paying for: teabag blends, chai and milk-tea programmes, catering and vending, instant tea manufacture and any private-label line competing on cup strength. Second-flush Assam, picked from around late May, carries the fullest malt and commands a premium over first flush and the rains teas that follow. Where CTC is the wrong purchase is a loose-leaf or speciality programme — the particles look like grit next to a whole-leaf orthodox tea, and the nuance a speciality customer is paying for was destroyed in the rollers by design. For that, orthodox Assam is the same district and a different product. CBIL brokers Assam CTC against garden mark, grade, taster assessment, moisture, ash and extract, from the Kolkata and Guwahati auctions or direct estate contracts, on FOB Kolkata and Haldia, CFR and CIF terms.