Tea Education — Tea vs Cha

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is an evergreen shrub that originated in southwestern China and northern Myanmar. Tea in Chinese is 茶 (cha), in Thai ชา (chaa), in Arabic شاي‎ (shay), in Greek τσάι (tsai), in Dutch thee, in German tee, in Italian tè... Why was “tea” called by people from all over the world in a similar way, either “te” or “cha”? Let’s dig into the history and find out. Origins of the character 茶 (cha) The earliest literature about the Chinese character 茶 (cha) is The Classic of Tea (《茶经》), written by Lu Yu in the Tang dynasty (8th century AD). He mentioned that tea was named differently depending on...