ai hua, 矮化; 矮 means low or short. Together the two characters mean to dwarf or stunt. Copice. A term used to refer to trees that have been heavily cut back at some point. This could have been for a variety of different reasons: typically because it was felt the tree was too tall and difficult to pick or because there was little lateral growth affecting yield. This is not to be confused with trees that were cut or burned down at some point in the past, often to clear ground for crops that at the time were considered more necessary or valuable than tea, and have since grown back. There are many trees like this in the area above Yiwu. See also teng tiao/藤条 for another style of tree management that is common in the Lincang-Lancang area but seldom used in Xishuangbanna.
an ji suan; 氨基酸 – 氨 is ammonia, 酸 is sour or acidic. Together refers to amino acid. Sometimes may also be written with the phoneme 胺 – 胺基酸.
ba qi; 霸气 – . ba – 霸 means hegemonic, or a noun: overlord or despot. So ba qi means strong, aggressive, and can refer to the ‘qi’ of tea, but is used more-so to refer to a certain quality in tea, but not necessarily (only) the qi. It tends more to refer to a set of overall qualities including flavour, ‘punch’ in a gastronomic sense, etc.
bao; 薄 – Thin, flimsy, weak. Used to describe tea that is lacking in flavour, body, ‘thickness’. A reflection of the lack of constituents in the tea. Also pronounced bo. i.e. 单薄/dan bo.
bao man; 饱满 – Literally full, plump. Used to describe the flavour of a tea and the broth: full, rounded. Not thin. A reflection of the amount of constituents in the tea: 内含物/nei han wu.
biao er cha su; 表儿茶素 – epicatechin.
biao er cha su mo shi zi suan zhi; 表儿茶素没食子酸酯 – epicatechin gallate.
biao mo shi zi er cha su; 表没食子儿茶素 – epigallocatechin gallate.
bing; 饼 – Cake or biscuit. Something shaped like a cake.
bo; 薄 – See bao.
bo; 波 – Wave. The term 波-bo here has the same meaning as flush: 第一波, di yi bo ,第二波, di er bo, and so on.
bo ji; 簸箕 – The two ‘zhu zi tou’, the 竹 characters at the top tell us it’s got something to do with bamboo. Bo ji are the winnowing trays, usually round, and made from woven bamboo that are commonly used in tea making.
cang wei; 仓味. Used to describe the flavour/aroma of tea that has been stored poorly. Often used to refer to the aroma of ‘Wet Stored’/湿仓 tea.
ceng ci gan；层次感. 层, layer,stratum, a part of a sequence. 感, feeling. So together, the sense, or feeling of layered-ness. Essentially of three types, relating to 香气, fragrance, 口感/滋味, mouth-feel, flavour and 韵, yun. The sense of a narrative or story, of changing elements that occur over a number of steeps as tea is drunk. One of the things that is particularly appealing about good Puer tea.
cha an suan; 茶氨酸 – 氨 is the character for Ammonia. 酸/suan means sour or acid. Together it refers to L-Theanine, the amino acid found in tea.
cha bing; 茶饼 – Tea cake. This is a cake of tea that has been pressed by hand or machine into a compact form. Easy for transporting and storage. The more tightly pressed it is, the slower the tea will age. They can range in size from 100 gms to several kilograms.
cha chang; 茶厂 – Tea factory or plantation.
cha di; 茶底 – literally tea end or bottom. More commonly 叶底/ye di.
cha di; 茶地 – 地 – di, land, ground. A more common expression used to refer to tea gardens or fields.
cha duo fen; 茶多酚 – phenols and polyphenols in tea: catechins, theaflavins, tanins. etc.
cha guan; 茶馆(儿) – Tea house. Not really a local term. More of a northern, or Beijing term.
cha he su; 茶褐素 – theabrownine. 褐 here means brown. Some translations give theobromine/可可碱
cha hong su; 茶红素 – thearubigin. 红 being red.
cha hu; 茶壶 – Tea pot. Made of porcelain, pottery or glass. Yixing pots are used for both cooked and raw Puer. Since they are pourous, the pots absorb flavours and chemicals from the tea. If one is serious about using Yixing pots, particularly for sheng Puer, one needs to be ready to get at least two pots – one for older and one for younger teas. And these should not be used for brewing other teas, and vice-versa. Yixing teapots will typically soften the flavours of sheng Puer.
cha hua; 茶花 – Camelia flower
cha huang su; 茶黄素 – theaflavin. 黄 is yellow.
cha jian lei; 茶碱类 – 碱 means alkali, 类 is type or class. Together refers to theophyline.
cha ju; 茶具 – Literally tea-tools. The paraphernalia for making tea gong-fu style
cha men (zi); 茶闷(子) – Another term for Gaiwan. 闷;men – to cover tightly. Not really used in Xishuangbanna, and probably a little dated.
cha nong; 茶农 – nong is a farmer. A tea farmer or cultivator. See also nong min; 农民
cha pan (zi); 茶盘(子) – Tea tray. The tray with a drainage system – normally a simple pipe- that is used when making tea. Usually made from bamboo, wood or stone.
cha qi; 茶气 – Tea nature. The inherent energetic qualities in tea. That which makes it tea. Sometimes rather unsatisfactorily interpreted as ‘tea energy’; translating qi as energy suggests perhaps a rather too narrow idea of qi but it is an interesting term to consider since many people use the term. Ideas and experiences ofcha qi vary considerably; the taste of tea, the appearance of the leaves (particularly after steeping i.e. the life in the tea), any physical or psychological experiences one may have as a result of drinking tea are all aspects of cha qi. One cannot satisfactorily dissociate one from the other just as one cannot isolate sunshine from wind, which are both manifestations of weather, tian qi. If it did not have cha qi it wouldn’t be tea, it would be something else. From a western point of view perhaps, cha qi is due, in some good part, to the presence of caffeine, theine, etc. The active constituents.
cha qi; 茶旗 – theophylline. A natural bronchiodilator, only present in very small quantities in tea.
cha qi; 茶器 – a tea set (of tools)
cha shi dian; 茶食店 – . A place to drink tea and eat snacks.
cha shi; 茶市 – Tea market. Also 茶市场/cha shi chang or 茶场/cha chang.
cha shi; 茶室 – tea room.
cha shu; 茶树 – Tea tree. A tree with a trunk, as opposed to a bush.
cha su; 茶素 – Theine
cha tang; 茶汤 – tea broth. See 汤感/tang gan and 汤色/tang se.
cha tong; 茶筒 – Tea cady or storage jar.
cha wan; 茶碗 – Tea bowl. This is typically a small handle-less bowl made from porcelain, terracotta or glass. As with Yixing pots, anything that is pourous is going to absorb flavours and should ideally be dedicated to one kind of tea.
cha wei; 茶味 – Tea flavour
cha wen hua; 茶文化 – Tea culture.
cha ya; 茶芽. Tea tip/s. 芽 – ya literally means tooth, So the new shoots of tea leaves. These are generally the most prized, followed by other less exquisit formations such as yi ya yi ye,一牙一叶 and yi ya liang ye, 一牙两叶, etc.
cha ye; 茶叶 -Tea leaf.
cha ye guan; 茶叶罐.- Tea caddy or storage container.
cha ye hua; 茶叶花 – Tea leaf flower or simply Tea flower; Camelia.
cha yi; 茶仪 – Tea ceremony. Not generally used to refer to the daily habit of tea making and drinking. Most habitual tea drinkers would be unlikely to use this term in reference to their tea-making activities. Not common parlance in Yunnan tea making circles.
cha yuan; 茶园 – Tea garden. Commonly used to refer to a tea plantation.
cha zhi; 茶质 – 质 is nature/quality, so together, maybe tea quality, or tea nature. The consituents that make it tea: Theine, caffeine. etc.
cha zhuan; 茶砖 – Tea brick. 砖 has 石 shi as a radical which means stone or something to do with stone, so a brick shape of material from the ground, but the wider meaning of brick is a brick shape of any material.
chao tian guo; 朝天锅 – A style of mechanised wok heated by gas or electricity with a large revolving open drum that can pivot to empty the tea leaves out. Think of something that looks rather like a cement mixer, but a little larger than a common or garden variety. Typically, around 12 kg of fresh leaves can be processed each time, so it can reduce the amount of time spent processing tea but if done well can still producea tea that is very similar to hand fried tea.
chen wei; 陈味 – Aged, mellow. An expression which in Chinese can be used to refer to the flavour of aged alcohol, tea, etc.
chen dian; 沉淀 – sediment. i.e. small particles that are sometimes found in tea broth when tea is being made. In good quality tea there is very little, if any sediment. One can often see the very small hairs that grow on sinensis assamica leaves floating in the tea soup having become detached from the leaf, but these do not appear as sediment or make the soup turbid .
chou; 稠 – dense, thick. Usually used to describe a the quality of a liquid, but sometimes also used for people. Often used together with 粘/nian.
chui niu; 吹牛 – 吹 – chui, to blow. 牛 – niu, cow, but in this case can be read as 公牛 or bull. An almost default aspect of tea drinking – ‘shooting the bull’. The talk that often accompanies tea drinking and can be peppered with much knowledge, a little exaggeration and some humour. Also 吹牛皮. 皮 – skin or hide. ‘Blowing the bulls hide.’
chun; 春 – spring.
chun cha; 春茶 – spring tea. Normally divided into periods; 头春; tou chun/first flush, 二春; er chun/second flush, 春尾chun wei, tale of spring. Also see 波-bo is also used.
chun; 纯 – pure. Used to refer to the quality/ies of tea. Not pin pei/拼配. Not mixed or adulterated. Not za/杂
chun; 醇 – mellow. Puer and mellow. Often used to talk about wine and other aged alcohol.
chun hou; 醇厚 – mellow and rich. Simple and kind.
da piao; 大票 – large ticket. The bigger loose label or ticket which is found inside a tea cake wrapper.
da shu; 大树 – 大, da – big,old. 树, shu- tree. Big/old tree. A term used to refer to trees that could be anything from say 30 odd years to 70 yrs old depending where you are and who’s talking. Many different places have their own approach, so there’s no hard and fast definition of what qualifies as da shu. See Gu shu/古树.
da ye; 大叶 – literally big leaf. The Chinese term for the broad leaf varietal camelia sinensis assamica.
da ye zhong; 大叶种 – the same as above. The 种 means variety, or 品种/pin zhong.
dan; 淡 – thin, bland, tasteless. 淡薄/dan bo – thin and weak.
dan ning; 单宁 – also a transliteratiopn for tannin.
dan yi; 单一 – single, singular, plain, one dimensional. The term is used to talk about the quality of a tea that lacks complexity. It may also be head in relation to tea gardens, describing the lack of diverse vegetation in a tea garden.
dan ya ; 单牙 – Single tip. Considered to be the most prized formation, followed by dan ya, dan ye 单牙单叶; one tip,one leaf and dan ya, er ye 单牙二叶; one tip,two leaves, etc.
Dian Hong; 滇红 – 滇 – Dian is an old name for Yunnan. So Yunnan Black Tea.
dou; 抖 – to shake or stir. One of the actions in frying tea. The leaves are typically turned in a manner that lets moisture out of the leaves but does not speed up the drying process too much. Periodically the leaves are shaken out. This allows moisture to escape, fresh air to enter and has a clear effect on the teas fragrance.
dou xiang; 豆香 – Dou is some kind of bean, xiang – fragrant, so together it means ‘beaney fragrance’. Synonymous with Puer tea that has been fired at too high a temperature and/or for too long, producing a bean-like aroma that is reminiscent of green tea.
dou cha; 斗茶 – Tea fight. A competition of tasting different teas to establish which is the best.
duo fen yang hua mei; 多酚氧化酶 – polyphenol oxidase. 氧 has the ‘qi zi pang’ /气 character, so we can guess it has something to do with gas/air. 化 can mean to transform or change – it also means chemistry – so yang hua together means to oxidise. 酶/ mei is a noun that means enzyme or ferment.
duo yuan fen; 多元酚 – polyphenol. Sometimes also just 多酚. 多 mean many, so poly, and 酚 is the chracter in Chinese for phenol.
er cha su; 儿茶素 – catechin. May also be 儿茶精/er cha jing. er generally means child or son, but also denotes something small, together with the suffix 素/su, means here basic element. Sometimes also 儿茶酚.
fang fa; 方法 – method 泡茶方法 pao cha fang fa – tea brewing method.
fa jiao; 发酵 – To ferment/fermented. Shu Puer tea is a made by a process of fermentation or oxidation. Raw puer is referred to as hou fa jiao cha/后发酵 – post-fermented tea – which technically is said to be a mix of oxidation and fermentation.
fen li; 分离 – to split, separate. Typically: 茶汤分离/cha tang fen li, separting of the tea broth. This refers to a sense that the tea, or its contents, has not dissolved in, or integrated into the liquid. This can sometimes happen because of a lack of skill in brewing – water temperature being too low, for example. It can also be caused by storage conditions, but is most commonly believed to be caused by relatively high moisture content in the dry leaves. Most likely due to the season in which the tea was made – it is fairly typical of summer tea. It could also be due to inherent qualities in the specific tea trees or tea gardens, though there’s not much proof for that argument. Having said that, there are certainly teas that start out OK, and will hold up fairly well for the first few steeps, but then will display this fen li tendency as the structure of the tea breaks down. This is surely an indicator of the quality of the tea and may be due to the age of the trees, environment, or issues with the management of tea gardens. Its antonym is perhaps 凝聚/ning ju.
fang mian; 方面 – Front face or aspect. Refers to the front face of a cake or bing of tea.
feng fu; 丰富 – 丰 means luxuriant, plentiful, abundant. 富 means rich, wealthy, abundant, so together it also means plentiful, abundant. Used to describe a fullness of flavour.
fu za; 复杂 – 复 can mean to duplicate, but here means complex. 杂 means mixed, irregular, miscellaneous. Together the two characters mean complicated, messy, not straight forward. So a negative meaning that might apply to tea leaves – i.e. not pure/纯，but could also apply to aspects of the tea taste: flavour/滋味, mouth feel/口感, etc. c.f. 杂货店/za hua dian is a general store. 杂 is also often used alone.
gan; 干 – dry. Sometimes used to describe a certain feeling in the mouth, typically on the tongue or in the throat that is either due to the nature of the tea, or the way it has been processed or stored. Distinct from astringent. See also 燥/zao.
gan; 甘 – sweet
gan tian; 甘甜 – sweet double sweet
gan cang; 干仓 – dry storage. Referring to tea storage that tends to be dry rather than excessively humid. Storing raw Puer in an excessively dry climate will have a harmful effect on the tea.
gai wan; 盖碗 – literally lid-bowl. A steeping bowl with a lid. They generally come in two or three sizes. The most common is 140cl/4oz. The lid is used to clear off any extraneous materials that may float to the surface on flushing and initial steepings. These (1 or 2) are typically not drunk. The lid is then used to partially strain the tea by holding it a little to one side as one pours the tea off through a fine strainer into a gong dao bei/共道杯 or decanting jug.
gao; 膏 – Glue, paste, oil, gum. 茶膏 tea oil. Somewhat prized because of it’s scarcity, cha gao can be found on the market in small quantities. When steeped, a very small piece will create a broth with a delicate pinky brown colour. The taste is also delicate, to the extent that it’s often barely discernible.
geng; 梗 – A noun 梗 is a stem or stalk.
geng; 哽 – A verb. To choke, to block, feel a lump in ones throat. Sometimes a sensation like this might be thought to be due to chemical residues in the tea, but could also be due to storage conditions.
gong dao bei; 共道杯 – 共道 – fair, just, even-handed. 杯 is a cup or vessel. Together means decanting jug.
gong fu; 功夫 – The skill or art of tea brewing.
gong yi; 工艺 – skill, craftsmanship. Usually referring to the skill of the firer. The person ‘frying’ the tea, but also includes all other aspects of the tea making process including rolling and drying.
gu gan; 骨感 – ’bone’ feeling. A relatively recent term. Along with 肉感/rou gan, it is attempting to describe aspects of a tea’s 厚度/hou du, as a measure of its 内含物/nei han wu. The contents of a tea that give the drinker a tactile sense of its 口感/mouthfeel (a feeling of the tea broth). gu gan can perhaps be understood as a demonstration more of certain aspects of the tea’s structure/结构: the things that give it a sense of structure – of which bitterness and astringency, sheng jin – are perhaps some of the more easily apprehended. gu gan and rou gan are not distinctly different and are perhaps better understood as being on a continuum.
gu hua cha; 谷花茶 – Autumn tea. 谷 means grains and 花 means flowers, but together refers to tea harvested in the Autumn.
gu shu; 古树 – 古 – old or ancient. Together it means old or ancient tree though there is not a very rigorous system of categorisation and 古/gu,老/lao and 大/big or old, often get used interchangeably, particularly since what is considered ancient in one area may not be referred to as ancient in another. Within China it is now not permitted to use these terms on Puer tea wrappers. qiao mu/乔木 however is still allowed even though it has a less clearly defined meaning.
gua; 寡 – scant, tasteless, bland. An interesting character that also means widow. Generally written 寡妇/gua fu, 妇 meaning woman. In tea drinking parlance, 寡口/gua kou means tasteless, bland. c.f. 无味之味.
guan mu; 灌木 – Literally means cultivated bush or shrub. 灌 – guan, to irrigate. 灌 has the water radical 氵so we can gues it has something to do with water. 雚 can mean a small cup, but here just provides the phoneme. This style of cultivation is relatively new in Yunnan, seemingly having only started in the early to mid 20th Century. Tea bushes are cultivated in rows. Guan mu cha is the tea from cultivated bushes.
gun tong; 滚筒. 滚 – gun, to roll. 筒 – tong, a cylinder, something cylindrical in shape. see 机器杀青/ji qi sha qing.
hai ba; 海拔 – 海;hai-sea, 拔;ba – to protrude, extend from. Together it means ‘above sea level’. Altitude.
he; 喝 – to drink. The 口字旁/kou zi pang, gives us some hint to it’s meaning.
he qiao; 喝瞧 – to taste or drink. 瞧 has the 目 radical, so we can guess it’s something to do with sight. It means to look or see. So the two characters together means something like ‘look and see’. Try.
hei dian; 黑点 – black spots, or pieces. A telltale sign that a tea was fired at quite high temperature and some of the tea leaves were burned a little in the process.
hong; 红 – red. In China, what is called black tea in the English speaking world, is called red. Cooked Puer is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a black tea.
hong cha su; 红茶苏 – thearubigin.
hong he su; 红褐素 – theabromine.
hong; 烘 – Oven.
hong qing; 烘青. Oven dried. Oven dried Puer is not only considered inferior to sun-dried tea, but according to the (legal/government) definition of raw Puer tea it cannot be so classified as Puer tea must be sun dried. Nonethless, most tea producers have a drying oven, previously often wood fired, but now typically electric, which may used to dry leaves if the weather does not permit sun drying. If a tea farmer has made tea and by, lets say, the second day it has not dried, it will likely be spoiled, so it’s not possible to rule out the possibility that the producer may use an oven to try to salvage their tea.
hong pei; 烘焙 – to dry or ‘cure’ tea, etc.
hou; 厚 – means thick, rich, mellow. Often used together with 醇/chun to form chun hou/醇厚. hou du/厚度 is a phrase that is also used as a way to indicate a measure of a tea’s 内含物/contents.
hou fajiao; 后发酵 – Post-fermented. 后hou – behind, after. 发; fa – has many meanings; to develop, expand, bring into existences, start; rise or expand when fermented. 酵 jiao – fermented. Together 发酵 means to ferment. Confusion often arises as the term fajiao is used to refer to both processes of fermentation and oxidation. The more specific term yang hua – 氧化 refers specifically to oxidation. Fa jiao as far as Puer tea is concerned comes in two forms: 人工发酵/ren gong fajiao and 自然发酵/ziran fajiao. 人工 means man made, so pile fermented. i.e. shu cha/熟茶. 自然 means natural, so naturally fermented, i.e. aged sheng cha/生茶.
hou long; 喉咙 – The throat. Often used in describing the experience of tea drinking. A pleasant feeling in the throat is a key factor in evaluating the quality of tea; 喉咙舒服/喉咙不舒服 – a comfortable or uncomfortable feeling in the throat.
hou yun; 喉韵 – Literally charm, allure. Used to refer to any lingering sensations that likely remain after the tea has been drunk. Typically fall into three categories: 甘, 润, 澡. As distinct from 韵/yun or 韵味/yun wei – sometimes also referred to as 后韵. See yun.
hu pi su; 槲皮素 – cuercetin. 槲 is the name for a species of tree known in English as Mongolian Oak (quercus dentata). 皮 is skin, or in this case bark. The name generally used for quecus dentatae cortex, part of the Chinese pharmacopoeia.
hu wei; 煳味 – 糊 is burned, 味 is flavour or taste, so burned flavour. Handmade Puer tea, made in a steel wok always has the potential for hu wei if the processing is not well managed, and if it’s not serious it may not be a big problem. When tea is steamed before pressing it can reduce aromas from the leaves being burnt in processing a little, but it won’t remove the taste or the little black pieces of leaf – 黑点/ hei dian that are a visual sign of the problem. If the tea has been machine ‘fried’, it won’t have ‘hei dian’ but if over fried could well have 焦片/jiao pian. Note: hu wei is distinct from yan wei/烟味.
hua; 滑 – smooth, slippery. Used to describe the velour or smoothness of tea broth. See 顺滑/shun hua
huang pian; 黄片 – literally ‘yellow leaves’ or ‘old yellow leaves/老黄片. The older growth leaves on a stem that if picked will not become tea in the way that younger, more supple leaves will, resulting in leaves that often look more yellowish after frying and are generally removed once the tea has dried. If there are not many they may well be left in as they provide more sugars than younger leaves. Several ethnic groups in the Xishuangbanna area prefer to drink a brew made from lao huang pian, rather than the younger leaves.
huang wan lei; 黄烷类 – flavanoids. Also 黄烷酮. 黄 being yellow, 烷 are alkanes and 类 means class or type.
huang tong lei hua he wu; 黄酮类化合物 – flavonoids. 化合物 means matter joined together – i.e. compounds.
hui gan; 回甘 – hui 回- return, come back, reply. 甜, gan-sweet. Together – sweet return, sweet aftertaste. Used generally to refer to the sweet aftertaste of tea that is fairly common with raw Puer tea. It may be considered as an aspect of 喉韵/hou yun, but this is a little problematic as often people will indicate that the sweetness is apprehended in the throat more than the mouth where, physiology tells us, we don’t have the capacity to taste. Nonetheless, the idea, and indeed the experience of hui gan persists and is considered distinct from the simple sweetness of a tea’s broth which might well be sensed in the mouth and may not transform into hui gan.
hui gan; 回甜 – Hui 回- return, come back, reply. tian, tian – sweet. Together – sweet return, sweet aftertaste. Some people use this term in preference to hui gan, but the meaning is essentially the same.
hun he; 混合 – A mix or blend. Perhaps with some derogatory connotation. Used by some to refer to pin pei cha. i.e tea that is not pure; not tea from one single place, season and/or type of tree. e.g. old tree tea leaves from two or more places , or tea from the same place but not only from old or ancient trees or bushes, or from different seasons.
hun zhuo; 浑浊 – Muddy, turbid. Good tea will produce a bright clear soup. Both 混 and 渾 can be used. There could be some situations where a little cloudiness in the broth is not detrimental but if the broth is clearly turbid one may consider not drinking it.
huo xing、活性 – 活 -alive. 性 – nature or quality, so liveliness, active/ness. Used to describe the floavour or other quality of a tea and also the leaves, particularly after a tea has been steeped.
ji qi rou (de); 机器揉(的) – Machine rolled. Some machine rolled tea has a very pleasing appearance and most tea gardens, however small, will have a machine, which is generally electric, but sometimes hand operated. However, the best sheng puer tea is still hand rolled.
ji qi sha (de); 机器杀(的) – Machine fried. Most tea farmers have a machine for the sha qing process, which is generally an electrically driven revolving drum, fired by a wood fire. Machine fried tea is probably better than poorly hand fried tea, but lacks the possibility of the more tactile method of hand frying. Some years ago the typical machine was a 滚筒/gun tong. A revolving drum, often wood fired, where the tea was put in one end and came out the other. The three things that could be controlled were the temperature, the rate of rotation and the amount of tea that was put in at a time. Now there are more advanced machines available but may people still believe they produce tea that is inferior to hand fired tea.
jia ji huang piao ling; 甲基黄嘌呤 – 甲基 denotes a methyl group, 黄嘌呤 is xanthene, so together means methylxanthene.
jian; 碱; – alkali. Normally used when discussing the pH of water – a critical aspect of tea making. If water is high in TDS and has a high pH, i.e. the water is hard, it will likely have a negative effect on the aroma of tea and also produce some astringency.
jian; 尖 – Tip. Often in reference to a new leaf that has yet to open but will also be heard when describing tea tasting experiences – 舌尖; she jian – the tip of the tongue.
jin; 紧 – tight. Usually used to refer to a feeling in the throat which is considered not pleasant: 喉咙紧. Usually thought to be aused by something undesirable in the tea, e.g. chemical residues, but could also be because of factors that occurred when the tea was being made. Could also be due to storage issues.
jin ya chi; 紧牙齿 – Literally ‘tightens the teeth’. A local expression for a kind of puckeriness maybe accompanied by 生津/sheng jin、saliva promotion that is felt typically around the lower gums/base of the teeth. An enjoyable quality, provided it disperses and gives way to sweetness at some point.
jin tiao; 紧条 – Refers to the way tea is rolled. Jin means tight, so tea that is rolled tightly.See also rou nian/揉捻.
jiao gu lan; 绞股蓝 – Latin: Gynostemma pentaphyllum. 绞 can mean something like twisted or entangled. The ‘rao zi pang’: 纟, gives an indication of that. 股 means thigh or strand. 蓝 has ‘cao zi tou’: 艹, which tells us it’s likely something to do with a plant. In this case indigo, but it also just means blue. It is a variety of vine that is indigenous to this part of Asia. It is included in the Chinese medicine pharmacopeia and people sometime blend small quantities with Puer tea.
jiao pian; 焦片 – 焦 also means burned, or maybe ‘scorched’ is better. 片 is a measure word for a flat object. Tea made in a ‘gun tong’ will not produce 黑点/hei dian if the temperature is too high, but may produce leaves that are scorched.
ka fei yin; 咖啡因 – a transliteration of caffeine.
ke ke jian; 可可碱 – theobromine.
kou gan; 口感 – Literally mouth-feeling. Dictionary definitions vary between mouth-feel referring strictly to textural character – i.e. 质地/zhi di, indicating a purely tactile facet of the tea drinking experience, others to a broader definition of flavour. In tea drinking it is largely referring to the former, but cannot be easily separated from other gustatory and olfactory senstions.
ku; 苦 – Bitter. There’s good and bad bitter. Good bitterness can at times be very obvious, but only lasts for a short time before giving way to a sweet taste. Less appealing bitterness lingers in the mouth. 化不开/hua bu kai – does not dissolve. 花开/hua kai means to spread out, to dissipate,dissolve.
ku di; 苦底 – bitter base. Refers to a kind of bitterness that doesn’t resolve, leaving a bitter residue on the tongue or upper palate. 苦地重/ku di zhong would be a term used where it was felt that bitterness was obvious and unrelenting. NOta very sought after experience
ku se; 苦涩 – Bitter and astringent. The nature of new raw Puer is a little astringent and bitter, followed by a sweet aftertaste. However, a bitterness with no sweet aftertaste is not typical of Puer and an astringency which is not comfortable would not be considered good tea.
ku cha; 苦茶 – Bitter Tea. The tea from a variety of tea tree (Camelia Sinensis Assamica var.Kucha) found in an area around Mensong and also in Lao Man E.
lei hu luo bo su; 类胡萝卜素 – 胡萝卜 is carrot, 类 is type， or kind, 素 again is a basic element. Together means carotenoid.
lu cha; 绿茶 – Green tea.
mao cha; 毛茶 – Tea that has been fried in a tea wok or a machine of some kind & then rolled & sun dried. 毛/mao means hair, feather or fur but can also mean rough or unfinished: 毛路/mao lu – a rough road, 毛坯房/mao pi fang – an undecorated or ‘bare’ house. ie the empty shell of a house. So mao cha also sometimes is undestood as rough or unfinished tea. i.e. tea that has noty yet become Puer tea as it has not yet been steamed and pressed.
mao er duo; 猫耳朵 – 猫 – cat. Literally cat’s ears. Possibly some kind of natural mutation or sub-varietal of the xiao ye zhong trees that are fairly common around Yi Bang, along with xi ye zi/细叶子 . It generally does not affect the whole tree, so that on a particular tree there are leaves that are ‘mao er duo’ without the whole tree producing the same kind of leaf shape and structure. Typically, though not exclusively, the leaves produce 夹叶/jia ye -two split leaves on either side of a stem but often without a tip. In reality, there’s probably not much tea around that is genuine mao er duo. Since it’s become a ‘thing’ the understanding of what mao er duo are exactly has changed – there is now tea that is referred to as mao er duo which in the past would not have been considered as such.
mao zhuang ti; 毛状体 – 毛 is hair, 状 is form or shape, and 体 can mean body or part of the body or maybe substance. Here together it means trichomes. The fine hairs that grow on leaves. See also 绒毛/rong mao
men; 闷 – to cover tightly. Used to decribe the process when steeping tea for a longer period of time to bring out the flavour. Also used as a descriptor in relation to frying tea. To ‘men’ i.e. to leave the leaves in the wok for longer than would be normal, usually at a moderately low temperature. It has the effect of tickening up the flavour but seems to have a detremental effect on the freshness/fragrance of the tea. See qing shuang
men huang； 闷黄 – 黄 – yellow. Men huang is a step in the processing of yellow tea that some people have been using with Puer tea. Typically, when the tea has been fried – 杀青, it is removed from the wok and shaken out onto a mat or bo ji to cool. With this ‘men huang’ process, the hot leaves are deliberately heaped up on a mat for some time – it could vary from a few to several minutes. (See here for more discussion on this process). Men is also used to refer to an approach at a stage of frying where the tea leaves are moved and shaken out less in the 杀青/sha qing process, resulting in a tea that has a slightly ‘steamed’ quality which affects the fragrance and makes the leaves yellower. Generally it will produce a tea that is not 清爽/qing shuang, and which many people would not consider desirable.
mo shi zi er cha su; 没食子儿茶素 – gallocatechingallate. As above the 素 is sometimes replaced with 酸/suan. 酸 is an acid.
nai pao; 耐泡 – Nai means durable, tolerant, hardy. Pao is to steep/infuse. Together it describes how tolerant a tea is of steeping. One of the characteristics of Puer tea, particularly old or ancient tea tree tea is that it can be steeped many times usinga gai wan or pot, often twenty or so times and still produce some flavour.
nei fei; 内飞 – 内 -nei inside/inner, 飞 – fly. This refers to the inner label which is embedded a little into the front of pressed tea cakes, bricks, etc.
nei han wu; 内含物 – 内 – inside, 含 – contain,include, and 物 – thing, matter, content, substance. So together, the constituents. The compounds, etc. that are found in tea: minerals, polyphenols, catechins, sugars, etc.
nei xiang; 内香 – refers to a kind of fragrance that is not ‘yang‘ or obvious, and may even not well perceived till after the tea has been swallowed. Sometimes also 幽香 – you xiang.
nian chou; 粘稠 – Used to describe the feeling of tea broth in the mouth or throat – viscous/stickiness. A tactile rather than taste sensation. Also 粘稠度/nian chou du or 粘稠感/nian chou gan. The degree of feeling of the stickiness/viscosity.
nong; 浓 – thick, dense, concentrated, strong. Used to talk about the density of the flavour of tea, or about the quality of the broth.
nong chou; 浓稠 – Both characters mean thick, dense, so together it means think, dense, creamy, concentrated. See 农都/nong du.
nong du; 浓度 – 度 is degree or extent, so used to describe the amount of thickness, density, nong du bu gou/浓度不够 is a phrase that can be used to describe a tea which does not have a great deal of ‘content’, of constituents in the leaf that give it flavour. bao/薄.
nong li； 农历 – 农 refers to agriculture or farming. 历 is used for history but means ‘to experience’ or ‘pass through’. It also denotes calendar, so 农历 is the traditional Chinese calendar which is a lunar calendar. c.f. 农民/nong min is a farmer. 茶农/cha nong is a tea farmer.
nong min; 农民 – 民 means people or folk. So nong min is farmer, or agricultural worker.
nong xiang; 浓香. 浓 nong – dense, thick, concentrated. Together it means strongly or densely fragrant.
pang xie jiao; 旁鞋脚 – Latin; (Viscum articulatum Burm.f.) Literally Crabs legs. A parasitic plant that grows on trees in sub-tropical regions. When it grows on the tea tree it absorbs flavour from the tree and makes a sweet, refreshing drink, hot or cool. Very limited availability. Puer cakes can be found that have Pangxiejiao mixed into the cake. Normally around 10-15%. It is also part of the Chinese medicine pharmacopoeia – said to have a diuretic effect and is used to clear heat.
pao; 泡 -To soak or steep. 泡茶. To steep or brew tea.
pao tiao; 抛条 – Pao means to throw or fling. This is a term that refers to a method of rolling rather lightly. The opposite is jin tiao 紧条.
pei er cha su; 配儿茶素 – gallocatechins. Also sometimes 陪儿茶酸/pei er cha suan. Sometimes it is also written as 没食子儿茶精/mo shi zi er cha jing. 没食子 is the name for Allepo gall （Quercus infectoria） a species of oak tree which has a history of use as an herbal medicine.
piao; 飘 – floating. Usually used to describe a tea with fragrance that seems separated from the broth and, in the mouth, the fragrance appears distinct from the broth, not rooted in it.
pin pei; 拼配. A blend or mix. pin pei Puer comes in many forms; tea from a particular place, but comprising of old tea tree leaves mixed with tea bush leaves or, old tree tea from different areas or seasons mixed together, or finally, a combination of all of the above.
pin zhi; 品质 – Quality or character. 品 means grade, class, character. 质 also means character, nature or quality.
ping; 评 – To criticise,review. To appraise. The 言字旁/’yan zi pang’ tells us the character has something to do with language or maybe communication. In tea drinking, to appraise tea. To taste.
ping wen; 平稳 – Smooth, steady, even. Used to refer to the taste of tea. Puer should be smooth and steady without any sudden changes in the flavour as steepings progress. A sudden change or loss of flavour is an indicator of poor quality. Good Puer can be steeped 20 to 30 times and maintain it’s flavour.
Po Shui Jie； 泼水节 – Water Splashing Festival. 泼 is sprinkle or splash, 水 is water, 节 can be a joint, knot or node. It’s also a classifier for segments of things, but also means festival. Like much of (Theravedan) Buddhist SE Asia this holiday in the middle of April marks the Buddhist New Year.
Pu’er; 普洱 – Also Puer, Pu – er etc. Pu’er is the modern pinyin spelling. The place name of the Old City of Pu’er through which pack horses transported the tea from Southern Yunnan. The names were recently changed; Pu’er is now Ning Er and nearby Simao has the adopted name of Pu’er. Locally, in spoken Chinese at least, Ning Er is still Pu’er.
Pu’er Tea; 普洱茶 – That ‘Puer Tea’ was given this name suggests that historically this kind of tea – post fermented camelia sinensis assamica must have come from the south and west of Puer for there to have been any sense in transporting it through that city. The majority of good Puer tea still comes from the Xishuangbanna region. Puer County itself was not an historically important tea producing region.
Yunnan Provincial Government has stipulated that for tea to qualify as Pu er it must be;
i) of the Broad Leaf variety (Sinensis Assamica)ii) grown in the Lancang (Mekong) River region ii) sun dried. The third point is important as there is much tea grown in the Lancang River area that is not sun dried.
There are also increasing amounts of Small Leaf Variety (xiao ye zhong /小叶种) being grown in the Lancang River area.
qiao; 乔 – Literally, tall. Used to refer to older trees, but without any clear indication of age. Essentially refers to a tree with a trunk. i.e. qiao mu 乔木 or 乔木茶.
qing; 青 – Green or blue.
qing bing; 青饼 – Green cake. This is a term that was in the past frequently used to denote a raw puer cake but fell out of use as 生普洱/raw puer became a more accepted term.
qing cao wei; 青草味 – Green grass aroma. Qing cao wei is perhaps an indicator that a tea has been wilted for slighlty less time than might have been ideal or more likely, of tea that has been pan fried a little shy of ‘done’. Sometimes this is done intentionally.
qing chou wei; 青臭味 – Strong green aroma, maybe. See above. Can generally refer to the smell that is present to varying extents with newly made sheng cha.
Qing Ming Cha; 清明茶 – Said to be tea that is picked three days either side of the springtime festival – Qing Ming Jie 清明节- Tomb Sweeping Festival which usually falls on April 4th, 5th or 6th. (actually on the first day of the fifth solar term of the Traditional Chinese Calendar or 农历/nong li). This is not really a concept that’s well fitted to old or ancient Puer tea havesting. There are many times when older trees do not flush till rather later in the month.
qing shuang; 清爽 – Fresh and cool, light, refreshing.
qing xi; 清晰 – 清 and 晰 both mean clear, distinct. So together is the same meaning – clear, distinct, limpid. Not 杂/za or 混浊/hun zhuo.
rou; 柔 – Soft, delicate.
rou gan; 肉感 – ’meat’ feeling. A relatively recent term. Along with 骨感/gu gan. An attempt to describe aspects of a tea’s 厚度/hou du, as a measure of its 内含物/nei han wu. The contents of a tea that give the drinker a tactile sense of its 口感/mouthfeel (a feeling of the tea broth). rou gan can perhaps be understood as a demonstration more of certain aspects of the tea’s fullness – bao man; 饱满, ceng ci gan；层次感 : the things that give a sense of fullness or narrative.
rou he; 柔和 – 和 means mild,gentle. So soft, gentle, supple,delicate. A quality of tea flavour and character.
rou nian; 揉捻 – To roll or kneed. Much Puer tea is till generally hand-rolled, though rolling machines are common and most tea farmers have one. Bush tea is invariably machine rolled as the price the tea fetches is low compared to old or ancient tree Puer tea, and rolling by hand is labour intensive and felt to be less ‘cost effective’.
ru kou; 入口 – (To) enter the mouth. The experience when tea first enters the mouth. The initial impression.
run; 润 – soft, delicate
run hua; 润滑 – smooth. Oily maybe.
san; 散 – loose, scattered, divergent. Usually heard in the phrase 散茶、san cha, loose tea. A term used instead of mao cha. 散 is also used to describe an experience when drinking tea where the broth ffeels to disperse in the mouth. Not 紧.
se; 涩 – Puckery, astringent.
sha qing; 杀青. 杀 is literally to kill. 青 is a descriptor for a green-bluish colour. So 杀青 translates as killing green. The process of pan ‘frying’ fresh tea arrests the action of plant enzymes that will have begun after picking.
sha guo tou: 杀过头 – Sometimes also sha guo du: 杀过度. Over-fried. To some extent a subjective yardstick. Over-fried does not mean burnt, but that the time in the wok at too high a temperature has been exceeded, resulting in a tea with more ‘green tea’ type qualities.
shai; 晒 – To dry in the sun. 晒太阳, 晒干, to sun dry.
shai qing; 晒青 – Sun dried. This is a critical aspect of Puer Tea processing. Oven dried tea is considered inferior to sun-dried. The Provincial Government has ruled that Puer tea must be sun-dried.
shan tou cha; 山头茶 – Literally ‘mountain top tea’. Tea that comes from one particular mountain, or part of a mountain. Single origin tea. As opposed to pin pei cha/拼配茶
shang e; 上颚 – the upper palate.
she mian; 舌面 – 舌, she – tongue,面, mian – face, surface of something. So the blade of the tongue, or dorsal aspect.
she jian; 舌尖 – The tip of the tongue.
sheng; 生 – Raw, uncooked, unprocessed. Here used to refer to Puer tea that is made from maocha that does not undergo further processing,other than steaming and pressing where it is made into cake, brick, etc. form.
sheng wei; 生味 – Literally ‘raw flavour’, due to tea not be fired enough to properly ‘kill green‘.
shi cang; 湿仓 – wet storage. Storage that is intentionally humid. Done in order to attempt to speed up the ageing process of Puer tea. It has risks associated with it from effectively shortening the ‘life’ of the tea, having a deliterous effect on the plant constituents – not least the aromatics compounds to ruining the tea altogether.
shi cha; 湿茶 – shi, 湿 wet or moist. To moisten the tea. The first steep.
shou; 熟 – Cooked, ripe, familiar, See also shu.
shou gong; 手工 – Literally hand-work. Hand made.
shu; 树 – Tree.
shu cha; 熟茶 – 熟 has two meanings: one is ripe, as in fruit, etc. The other is ‘cooked’ or ‘done’ so it’s a term that could be used to decribe the end stage of the ‘frying’ of sheng puer. One may sometimes hear the term 熟透了, meaning it’s cooked through or ‘done’ (in itself a quite variable concept). The second, more common meaning, is to refer to pile fermented Puer tea/ wo dui cha. See also shou cha
shui lu; 水路 – The experience of the broth moving through the mouth. Does it dissipate or does it move directly through the mouth down into the throat? Is it hard or soft/delicate? Related to 口感/mouthfeel, but more concerned with the feeling of the trajectory of tea through the mouth.
shun hua; 顺滑 – 顺- smooth， 滑 – slippery. Together smooth and slippery, oily maybe. A pleasant lubricating quality.
suan; 酸 – literally sour or tart. Some tartness or sourness is considered one of the normal flavours of tea, but whether it is acceptable will depend on the situation. It is not uncommon for some sheng Puer to have a slight sour taste which can occur during storage, particularly when the tea is relatively young, say 2-4 years old. After that it tends to abate. Some people rfer to it as 妹子味/mei zi wei, or plum taste. Tea that has been in storage for a long time can also have a slight sour note, but after bringing the tea out and airing it for some time the aroma will disappear. These two situations need to be distinguished from a sour flavour caused by incorrect processing. Most likely from tea that has not been properly sun dried after rolling or, if the tea has been pressed, tea that has not dried properly after pressing where there is an excess of moisture still in the leaves.
suo hou; 锁喉 – 锁 is a lock, or to lock. So to lock the throat. An unpleasant tight feeling in the throat after drinking tea. Often thought to be caused by chemicals in the tea, but could also be because of processing issues, or even poor storage.
tan qing; 摊青 – The process of laying freshly picked leaves out to allow the moisture content to diminish before frying.
tang gan; 汤感 – 汤, soup or broth. 感/gan, feeling. The feeling of the broth in the mouth: smooth, rough, chalky, etc. Part of 口感/kou gan. Distinct from 滋味/zi wei, 回甘/hui gan, etc.
tang se; 汤色 – 汤, soup or broth. 色/se, colour. The colour of the broth.
tao xi; 讨喜 – 讨, can mean a lot of things: discuss, demand, marry, ask for . 喜 means like, love, enjoy. Together the phrase means likeable, charming.
tai di; 台地 – Literally mesa or plateau. 台地茶 tai di cha refers to tea bushes that have been planted and are still young. They are also the broad leaf varietal and have generally been grown from the seeds of old trees. They are not inherently bad, but the use of chemicals in their cultivation is pervasive.
teng tiao; 藤条 – 藤 is cane or rattan. tiao describes a long thin object or stick and is also used as a measure word for such objects. Teng tiao refers to tea trees that have been repeatedly cut back to produce many relativley thin stems, so it looks more akin to a stand of bamboo than a tea tree. A style which seems popular in the Lincang-Lancang area.
ti gan; 体感 – literally ‘body feeling’. Rarely used in relation to other teas, but the term has become part of the Puer drinkers lexicon. Some interpret it very broadly: as an expression that covers any sensory experience, including gustatory and olfactory experiences via the five sense organs. Personally, I see it more as a term that might include somesthetic sensations, of which ‘qi’ might be considered a part, that we are able to perceive internally or on the surface of the body. In either case, it is something which is generally attributed to the high levels of constituents in Puer tea. (see here for further reading)
ti tou; 剔透 – bright and limpid.
tian xiang; 甜香 – 甜, tian – sweet.香, xiang – fragrant. Used to refer to Puer tea that has a sweet – fragrant flavour.
tiao suo; 条索 – tiao describes a twig or a long narrow piece of something. Suo can describe a rope or cable. Together tiao suo is the way tea leaves are rolled/twisted. The outward appearance of the dry leaf.
tong; 筒 – Literally a barrel or barrel shaped object. A tong in Yunnan tea culture is a bundle of 7 tea cakes wrapped in the outer skin of bamboo which naturally sheds from around the base of the bamboo stem. Each cake weighs 357grams so making a total of 2,499 gm. Said by some to have been calculated in order to remain under a specific legislated weight of 2.5 kg. There were originally said to be 8 cakes in a tong. The 8th being paid as a levy. An earlier unit of weight in China was the liang. A cake of tea weighed 7 liang and 7 cakes in a tong made 49 liang. The reasons for the typical 6 tong in a jian are less clear, but maybe to do with the amount of weight a pack-horse could carry – 16 liang in a jin, or a catty (then equivalent to 1.3 pounds or 600g). The most a horse could carry was thought to be 60 catties, though the figures don’t quite add up.
tou liang; 透亮 – 透 – tou, to penetrate/penetrating. 亮 – liang, bright. Together means bright, transparent. Used to refer to the quality of tea broth. If the broth is muddy, i.e. not transparent, it is a sign that there has been a problem with manufacturing and/or storage. See also 透明tou ming.
tou ming; 透明 – 透 – tou, See above. – 明 – ming, bright. Bright, transparent,clear.
wei dao; 味道 – 味 – taste, flavour. 道 has many meanings – way,path,method,doctrine, reason, talk, etc. but together these two characters mean flavour, taste or smell.
wei diao; 萎凋 – Literally to wilt. A process more typically used in relation to the production of black tea, but the term is often used interchangably with tan qing: spreading fresh leaves out in the shade to allow the moisture content to reduce by about 10 percent prior to frying. Contentious as some people maintain that wilting was not traditionally part of the puer sheng cha process. (see here for more discussion)
wo dui; 渥堆 – 渥- wet, moisten, 堆 – heap/pile – wo dui – 渥堆, literally wet – pile. The process of ‘pile fermentation which is used to make ‘aged’ or 熟/shu Puer tea.
wu dao: 捂到 – 捂 – to cover, seal, muffle. wu dao is generally used to describe fresh tea leaves that have not been well managed after picking. Possibly because they were packed in a bag or basket too tightly in order to transport them. In that situation an exothermic reaction starts quite quickly and the leaves give off heat and will begin to ferment. In some areas of Xishuangbanna it is almost unavoidable due to the distance and accessibility of some tea gardens, but if minimised the effect on the tea quality for Puer tea is not excessive.
wu wei zhi wei; 无味之味 – 无 – nothing, without, 味 – flavour. Together, the phrase is pointing to a kind of tea drinking experience where the flavour is very mild (many might say non-existent), but which nonetheless has something – flavour maybe, or other aspects which are less easy to apprehend – which gives the tea appeal, and is distinct from 淡/dan, 薄/bo, 寡/gua, etc. Considered by some to be the pinnacle of (Puer) tea drinking. Legend has it that the term was first used by Qian Long of the Qing Dynasty (1736-1795) but there are also other attributions. In any case, something of a holy grail. The amount of tea in the world that’s truly worthy of the description is surely small.
xi cha; 洗茶 – 洗 is to wash. So washing tea or moistening tea at the beginning of a tea drinking session. Many people disagree with the term ‘wash tea’ which implies somehow that it is not clean. It may be that in the process of making sun-dried mao cha that there are extraneous items that end up in the tea – small pieces of bamboo, twigs, etc. but with contemporary Puer production this possibility is very slight. If a tea is clean there is no reason not to drink the first steep.
xi ni; 细腻 – Fine and smooth. Exquisite. Referring to a particular quality of 口感/kou gan. Velour maybe.
xi ye zi; 细叶子 – fine leaf. Another lesser known sub-variety oxi ye zi; 细叶子 – xi means fine or maybe thin, so thin leaves. One of the varieties, along with mao er duo/猫耳朵 which is picked selectively around Yi Bang.
xian wei; 鲜味 – 鲜 means fresh, or sometimes, salty. 味/wei means taste or flavour. Together these two characters refer to the Japanese word used in english – umami. One of the five basic tastes or flavours. It is not used that much when describing sheng Puer.
xiang; 香 – Fragrance/fragrant
xiang gan chun hou hua/香、甘、醇、厚、滑. Another phrase which attempts to encapsulate the important parameters of tea tasting. See 醇/chun, and 厚/hou
xiang gan zhong hua; 香、甘、重、滑 – xiang is fragrant, gan is sweet, zhong can mean heavy, weighty, and hua as an adjective means smooth or slippery, though it can also mean slippery in the sense of cunning. Together the four characters make up one of a number of common phrases which proscribe ‘good’ tea. See also xiang, gan, chun, hou, hua/香、甘、醇、厚、滑.
xiang nong; 香浓 – aromatic
xiang tian; 香甜 – Fragrant and sweet. Both literal and figurative.
xiang qi; 香气 – Fragrance. Puer can be quite fragrant, but highly perfumed tea is genereally suspect, because it is not natural for ancient tea tree Puer to be that fragrant, in the way say, of Wulong tea.
xiao shu; 小树 – literally ‘small trees’. Used to denote trees that are not old enough to be ‘da shu’ but are also not bush tea. i.e. they are trees essentially growing naturally, but could be anything from a few years to decades old.
xiao ye zhong; 小叶种 – 小 – small， 叶 – leaf. Small leaf varietal. There is some disagreement over whether this variety of tea tree, known locally as ‘small leaf variety’, is indeed distinct from da ye zhong/大叶种/camellia sinensis var. assamica, and more similar to sinensis sinensis – the small leaf variety of camellia sinensis var.sinensis that is widely cultivated in eastern China, or whether it is in fact a sub-varietal of sinensis assamica.
xie tiao; 协调 – 协, to coordinate. 调, to tune, harmonise. So together it means harmonius: What this means for a good Puer tea is that all the qualities: 苦/ku, 涩/se, 香/xiang, 回甘/hui gan, 生津/sheng jin, 厚度/hou du, 喉韵/hou yun, etc. all appear in a harmonised way that creates an impression of richness and fullness, rather than plain or simple: 单一/dan yi.
xing cha; 醒茶 – 醒, to awaken, so together this means to awaken the tea. The term is sometimes used rather than 洗茶/xi cha to describe the process of moistening the tea – 湿醒/shi xing. i.e. the first time water is poured onto the tea before drinking it. The term is also used to describe the process of breaking up a cake of tea that has been stored for some time and allowing it to air: 干醒/ gan xing. Sometimes put in an earthenware jar for the purpose. Puer tea that has been in long term storage is best not drunk straight away, and will improve greatly if it goes through a period of airing.
ya; 牙 – Tooth. Used to describe a single tip or newly formed leaf that has not yet opened. See dan ya.
yan wei; 烟味 – 烟 is smoke or maybe smoked/smokiness, so yan wei is a smokey aroma or taste. It occurs for completely different reasons from 煳味/hu wei and is distinctly different. In the past, a fair bit of tea, particualry from the Bulang Shan area had a smokey aroma to it, mostly due to the fact that mao cha was stored in traditional houses with an open hearth.
yang hua; 氧化 – 氧 – yang means oxygen, yang hua means oxidation. The more correct term for the oxidation process which takes place in the production of certain types of tea such as black tea. See 发酵 – fajiao
ye; 叶 – Leaf. cha ye 茶叶 – tea leaf.
ye bing 叶柄 – 柄 has a ‘mu zi pang’/木字旁, the radical for wood which gives us a hint about the character’s meaning. 柄 as a noun can mean a handle, but here means stem. Usually used for fruit, leaves or flowers.
ye di; 叶底 – The tea dregs. By looking at the tea dregs one can get a clearer picture of the original leaves; what kind of tree they were from etc.
ye lu su; 叶绿素 – chlorophyl.
ye mai; 叶脉 – 脉 has ‘yue zi pang’, the moon radical, so here we can guess it maybe has some connection with the body, or a body part. Generally, ‘mai’ refers to veins and arteries, so here, when used with ‘ye’ it refers, as it does in English, to the veins of a leaf.
ye pian; 叶片 – 片 is a flat, thin piece of something and can also act as a classifier for films, TV plays, etc. Together with ye/叶 it refers to the lamina of a leaf – the main flat body of a leaf.
ye sheng; 野生 – Wild, feral. Whilst there is still a comparatively large number of truly wild tea trees in Yunnan, most tea does not come from them, coming rather from arboreal trees.i.e. trees that were originally cultivated, but then left untended for many years, or bushes.
ye yuan chi; 叶缘齿 – 叶 again is leaf, 缘 means edge or fringe and 齿 means tooth, so the teeth on the edge of a leaf – serrations. It could also just be 叶缘 – leaf margin,. or leaf edge.
yi ya yi ye; 一芽一叶 – One tip, one leaf. A high quality picking standard that is mostly used for other kinds of tea and rarely used for Puer.
ying; 硬 – hard. Can be used in reference to a tea’s broth amongst other things: 水路硬/shui lu ying to describe a kind of hardness of the feeling/口感 of the tea broth in the mouth.
you xiang; 幽香 – hidden fragrance. See nei xiang/内香.
yu shui cha; 雨水茶 – Literally Rain water tea. Summer Tea. Less prized than Spring Tea or Autumn Tea. The flavour is usually less fulsome than Spring tea. Also, it is often oven-dried (hong qing; 烘青) as it is harvested in the rainy season.
yu wei mian chang; 余味绵长 -余味 refers to an agreeable aftertaste. 绵 can mean continuos, for a long time or drawn out. 长 means long, so together the two characters also mean long lasting, drawn out. Yu wei mian chang is therfore is a way of referring to a particularly long lasting aftertaste, or 喉韵/hou yun.
yuan liao; 原料 – Raw Material. The original ingredients used to make a cake, brick. etc.
yun; 韵 – Charm, appeal, allure. A difficult term to render into English as it refers to a quality of tea that ‘cannot be apprehended by the five senses.’ Generally used with hou; 后, after, later- hou yun – or sometimes 韵味/yun wei. Any pleasaNY (or may be not so pleasant) feelings that linger after the tea has been swallowed. It can be distinct from hui-gan, which we can maybe categorise as an extension of the ‘taste’ experience, Yun is something less tangible, but could well include some hui gan along with other aspects of tea: aroma, sweetness, energetics, etc.
za; 杂 – means mixed, irregular, miscellaneous. See fu za/复杂. Not pure/纯, not clear/清晰.
zao; 燥 – Dry.Often used to refer to a dry feeling in the mouth that may be experienced when drinking tea. Also see 干.
zhang; 樟 – Camphor. 樟树, Camphor tree. Zhang wei; 樟味 – Camphor flavour. This is sometimes present in old tea tree Puer. Due, it is said, to the presence of Camphor Laurels in tea gardens where they were planted as a form of natural pest control.
zhong xiao ye zhong; 中小叶种. Literally middle-small leaf varietal. It’s debateable whether these varietals, along with zhong ye zhong are truly distinct varietals of da ye zhong, or whether they are sub-varietals, natural or cultivated, of sinensis assamica.
zhong ye zhong; 中叶种. Literally middle leaf varietal. Found mostly in some areas around Xiang Ming: Mang Zhi, Yi Bang.
zi juan; 紫娟. Purple Beauty. A purple leaved variety of Sinensis assamica which has been produced in Yunnan.
zi wei; 滋味 – 滋 has many meanings, one of them being ‘taste’. 味 means taste,flavour,odour (see 味道). Together it means taste or flavour.
zi ya; 紫芽 – 紫 is purple. 芽 is tip. So purple tip. A sub-variety of sinensis assamica. There are trees, often at quite high altitude, that naturally produce some tips that are purple. This is due to environmental conditions (high UV?) rather than varietal.