Tea is sorted into various grades. These grades are not standardized worldwide and may vary according to origin. A tea's grade does not necessarily indicate flavor or quality. They are rather determined by many different factors including: the country of origin, the variety of the tea, the garden or estate, the elevation, the particular flush (picking) and the manufacturing after harvesting. Most black teas are graded and sold according to leaf or particle size. The harvesting and manufacturing of tea has a great impact on the finished size of the leaf, thus the tea grade. There are two main methods of producing black tea. The traditional Orthodox method requires hand plucking of the top two leaves and the bud and may yield all of the possible leaf sizes and grades. The CTC (crush, tear, curl) method has been gaining in popularity because of its efficiency and convenience. CTC processed teas may be either hand plucked or harvested by machinery. When machine harvested, the CTC process gathers the traditional top two leaves and bud as well as other leaves on the tea bush. The leaves are then processed through the CTC machine, have a palliated appearance and are always broken sizes.

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There are four main grades for black tea: