Insight
What does a gunpowder grade number mean?
A gunpowder grade number describes the finished make of the tea — pellet size, how tightly it is rolled, colour and the proportion of broken leaf — after refining and screening. It does not identify a garden, a harvest date or a cultivar. Two lots carrying the same grade number from different refiners can differ; the grade fixes the make, the contract fixes the rest.
Gunpowder is produced by rolling green tea into tight pellets. The tighter and more uniform the pellet, the higher the grade and the slower the liquor releases in the pot — which matters in markets where the same leaf is brewed three times.
Because the number describes make rather than origin, the specification you write matters more than the number you quote. Moisture, broken rate, screen size and residue limits belong in the contract, not in the grade code.
| Grade | Pellet make | Typical role | Principal markets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3505 | Tight, uniform, dark green | Reference grade | Morocco, Senegal |
| 9375 | Standard pellet | Main volume grade | Morocco, West Africa |
| 9475 | Smaller pellet | Price-led programmes | West Africa |
| 9575 | Smallest pellet | Blending and re-export lots | Re-export via Ghana |
How do the 3505 sub-grades work?
3505 is a family, not a single specification. It runs from 3505AAAAA through 3505AAA, 3505AA, 3505A, 3505B and 3505D. The letters step down pellet uniformity and colour consistency and step up the broken and fannings content. Quoting bare 3505 without the suffix leaves the most price-relevant variable undefined.
In practice most Morocco and Senegal contracts settle on a suffix and then hold it across shipments, because importers blend to a consistent cup and a grade drift shows up immediately at the retail level.
If you are comparing quotations, compare suffixes first. A price gap between two 3505 offers is usually a suffix gap, not a supplier gap.
What should a gunpowder contract specify?
Six things beyond the grade code: moisture at or below 7.0%, maximum broken and fannings percentage, screen size, dry leaf and liquor colour, the pesticide residue standard the lot is tested against, and the packing net weight. Residue is the clause that stops shipments at the destination, and it is the one most often left to a generic reference.
Moisture at or below 7.0% is the standard trade figure for Chinese green tea, and moisture is one of the main factors in how long tea keeps, together with the pack's barrier and storage temperature, light and odour. The best-before date is set per contract and printed on the pack; this site does not publish a single shelf-life figure.
Specify the residue standard by destination, not by origin. A lot that clears the Chinese limit has not necessarily cleared Morocco's or the EU's.
- Moisture
- ≤ 7.0%
- Dry leaf
- Tightly rolled pellets, dark green
- Liquor
- Bright yellow-green
- Packing
- Multiwall paper sacks or cartons, net weight per contract
- Shelf life
- Best-before date set per contract; keep cool, dry, sealed, away from light and odour
- HS heading
- 0902.20 in bulk; 0902.10 in packings of 3 kg or less
Which markets buy which gunpowder grade?
Morocco is the largest buyer of gunpowder by a wide margin: 91,000 tonnes of Chinese tea in 2025, 99.85% of it green. Senegal is the highest-paying at USD 4,024.6 per tonne against Morocco's USD 3,043.4. Mauritania takes 100% green tea from China. Ghana, at USD 72.4 million and 99.92% green, functions as a re-export hub into Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
The West African preparation — attaya in Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and the Gambia — brews the same leaf three times with sugar and mint, in three progressively sweeter rounds. That ritual is why pellet tightness and re-infusion behaviour are commercial variables in this region rather than tasting notes.