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The Name Game
By Winnie, tea buyer and co-founder
Have you ever been sipping a great tea, and wondered how it got its name? From Longevity Brows to Taiwan Beauty, tea names are infused with history, culture, and poetry. Here Winnie divulges the stories behind the names of some of Teance's most popular teas.
The Chinese name for tea, "cha," literally defines its relationship to mankind. The top radical, chao, indicates that tea is a plant. The middle radical is ren, or man, and the bottom radical is mu, or tree. Tea is a product of nature that man has nourished, but man is but a partner with nature in this relationship, insignificant if not lodged between plant and tree.
The character for tea originated as tu, from the indigenous peoples who first called it ku tu, or bitter tea. Later on, a stroke was dropped from the character, changing its pronunciation to "cha." Some old areas, however, maintained the original character with their local dialect pronunciation, such as the indigenous people of Fujian, who called it "te" (rhymes with "day").
Tea has enjoyed thousands of years of culture and goodwill throughout Asia. Tea names are relics that give us glimpses into what mattered: The values and worldviews of the people are inseparable from their teas.
Lu Shan, a most revered mountain, is named after the hot water cauldron of Lao Tzu, the author of the renowned Tea Classics. Poets and historians traveled far and wide to pay respects, and the poet Su Dong Po once lamented, "Regretfully, I was never able to see the real face of Lu Shan," because while he lived on the mountain for 3 months, there was not one clear day. Lu Shan was known to be blindingly foggy, for something like 260 days of the year, and the teas that grow there have tiny little curls of leaves that fight hard for sunlight.
The resulting tea is very rich and dark green, named Lu Shan Yun Wu by the locals, yun meaning cloud, and wu meaning fog or mist, the tea a definite product of clouds and mist.
White Peony Longevity Brows
Mythology also plays a big part in the naming of teas. Almost every notable tea has a myth attached to it, some invented after the names were given, others named along with their myths. Many myths were similar, involving a supernatural Taoist or Buddhist deity, such as Guanyin, who pointed the way.
Once upon a time, an upright government official fled from his post with his elderly mother because corruption was rampant in the government and he resigned in disgust. On their journey, they came upon a lush green mountain with a fragrance that floated gently out to greet them. They asked an old man with snow-white hair and long white eyebrows where the fragrance came from. He pointed to a cluster of 18 white peony flowers growing along the lotus pond. Thoroughly enchanted, they settled in a dilapidated temple there and tended to the flowers.
One day the elderly woman fell gravely ill, and the official didn't know where to find medicine. Falling asleep with exhaustion, he dreamt that he saw the white-haired old man again, who told him to "make sure you make medicine out of carp and new tea buds." He woke up and was shocked to learn his mother had had the same dream. He immediately caught some carp, but where would he find new tea buds in the middle of winter? Suddenly, he heard a crackling sound: All 18 peony flowers had turned into tea bushes covered in silver-white buds with a fragrance quite reminiscent of peonies. His mother was immediately cured.
The official carefully propagated these plants and shared them with the locals. To commemorate these extraordinary bushes, the locals thereafter called the tea White Peony Longevity Brows, because the buds resembled the arched white eyebrows of the immortal who first pointed out the white peony bushes.
Tikuanyin
As has been said, "the taste of Zen and tea are one," and so Buddhism and tea are inextricably linked. The most commonly known story is that of Tikuanyin, or "Iron Bodhisattva of Compassion," an oolong tea from Anxi province in China.
Long ago a poor farmer prayed fervently for help from the goddess of compassion, Guan Yin, to raise enough money to revive the abandoned Buddhist monastery that once served their village. One night the farmer dreamt that she appeared and led him to a steep part of the mountain, and pointed to a tea plant growing there. The next day the farmer sought out the part of the mountain and indeed found the plant.
After propagating this carefully and making tea with it, he found that it was of extremely high quality and very fragrant. Consequently, he named the tea after his patron, Bodhisattva. Noting that the leaves were fleshier and heavier than those of other teas, reminiscent of the weight of metal pellets in his hands, he named the tea "Iron," or Tie, Guan Yin. Of course this tea proved to be a wild success, generating enough money to revive the monastery.
But Tikuanyin has another more Confucian legend attached to it, and many call this story true. A scholar named Wang from Anxi was studying hard for his magistrate's exam in the 1700s when his eyes wandered to a bush with shiny, dark green leaves. Filled with curiosity, he picked some leaves and processed them that night like he would any other tea, for he suspected that these bushes were very similar to other tea bushes nearby.
The resulting tea was extremely fragrant and intoxicatingly complex and fruity. Quite impressed, he took some of this tea with him the next day to his exam at the capitol. The story varies here, with some accounts suggesting that not having done so well in his exam, Wang presented some of this tea as a bribe to the examiner. The examiner knew that the then-Emperor Qian Long loved tea, so he re-routed the gift.
Sure enough, the emperor was astonished at its quality and uniqueness, and subsequently named it "Beautiful like the Guanyin herself, the leaves weighty in the hands like metal," or Tieguanyin. A shrine remains where Wang's house once was, next to his original tea bushes.
Anxi Tikuanyin #1
Monkey Picked Tikuanyin
Bi Luo Chun
Qian Long's grandfather, the Emperor Kang Xi, was much more practical. Once upon a time, he was visiting Dong Ting, a renowned picturesque lake. He witnessed the way that the locals harvest their tea, by very carefully placing the young leaves on their chests under their clothes, their body heat causing the fragrance of the leaves to float gently up and down the mountain.
They presented the emperor with tea made from these tiny spirals of leaves. Thoroughly pleased, the emperor asked what this excellent tea was called. The locals replied, Xia Sha Ren Xiang, or "So fragrant it stuns a person to death." The emperor thought that was a coarse and uneducated name, and decided to rename it Bi Luo Chun, "bi" meaning jade green, after the color of the leaves; "luo" meaning little snails, after their shape; and "chun" meaning spring time, as it was harvested in the spring only. Bi Luo Chun remains one of the most renowned green teas.
Bi Luo Chun
Big Red Robe
There was once a magistrate whose mother fell ill. Desperate to seek a remedy, he sought help far and wide. He heard that at Mount Wuyi in Fujian there were miraculous medicinal plants that could cure many ills. The locals there pointed him to some bushes that grew on the cliffs and rocks atop the mountain. Upon securing some leaves and brewing them, he found that these were called tea. His mother was miraculously cured from this brew.
Immensely moved by what a powerful plant this was, the magistrate hiked up to the top of Mount Wuyi, removed his red robe, lit incense, set up an altar for ceremony, and placed his robe at the foot of the tea bush. The red robe was a symbol of the highest position in the government next to the emperor himself, and offering it as a gift was the highest honor, befitting the most important Confucian relationship of all, that of parent and child. Thereafter tea growing on those cliffs was called Da Hong Pao or "Big Red Robe."
Yellow Gold
Most names, even without such profound legends attached, are reflective of the thought processes of the growers. For example, Yellow Gold Osmanthus Oolong, Huang Jin Gui, a notable Oolong from Fujian, is so named because at one time, this tea was so sought after that demand far exceeded supply, and so customers lamented that the tea was like yellow gold (huang jin), the most expensive kind. Gui refers to its fragrance that resembled osmanthus flowers, as many teas were in fact named for their fragrances.
Phoenix Oolongs
The most representative of this naming method are the Feng Huang Dan Chong teas, single-grove teas the size of trees grown in Phoenix Mountain (Feng Huang), each bearing a different fragrance. You'll find Honey Fragrance (Mi Xiang), the very common Orchid Fragrance (Zi Lan Xiang), and more esoteric ones like Ginger Flower Fragrance (Jiang Hua Xiang). The most perplexing tea is the Eight Immortals (Ba Xian), because most of us do not have a reference to what Taoist immortals smell like.
At one politically correct time, one of the oldest, rarest 400-year-old Dan Chong trees was re-named The East is Red (Dong Fang Hong) when Chairman Mao declared it his favorite of all the Phoenix Mountain Oolongs. Shortly after the passing of Mao, that tree was reverted to its original name, the Song Dynasty Offspring (Song Zhong), which signifies its age: The original Song Dynasty tree is more than 1000 years old.
Phoenix Single Grove Almond Fragrance
Phoenix Single Grove Pommelo Flower Fragrance
Phoenix Single Grove Honey Fragrance
Bamboo Green
Farmers will name their teas after their natural environments. Bamboo Leaf Green tea, or Zhu Ye Qing, is named after the stout, dense, dark green bamboo groves and leaves that cohabitate with the tea bushes grown at E Mei Shan; the tea tips themselves rather resemble pointy bamboo leaves, and reminds one of the fragrance of bamboo. One can even go as far as to say that the leaves drop to the bottom of a tea cup much like the bamboo leaves float gently to the ground in the wind.
Taiwan Beauty
When East and West meet, the value systems of each quickly become apparent. The Queen of England was supposedly presented with an expensive tea that she enjoyed so much that she named it Taiwan Beauty, as it was as beautiful as the people of Taiwan, she said. The citizens of Taiwan however, do not call their tea that, instead calling it the more-inclusive Eastern Beauty (Dong Fang Mei Ren).
Other variations, such as Bai Hao Oolong, which meant White Downy Oolong (white tips often found), and Wu Se (Five Colour Oolong), refer to the red, brown, green, white, and yellow leaves found in this unusual ensemble.
Once, the Queen of England was supposedly presented with an expensive tea she enjoyed so much that she named it Taiwan Beauty, as beautiful as the people of Taiwan, she said. The natives of Taiwan however, do not call their tea that. Some foreign merchants even went on to call this particular tea Champagne Oolong, decidedly not in keeping with the traditions of naming teas by the Chinese. As for the growers in Taiwan, they call this Peng Feng, which means exaggeration, or "downright baloney." There you have the perceived value of a tea by foreigners versus the growers who knew better.
Tea has enjoyed thousands of years of culture and good will in the lives of Asians. Tea names are relics that give us glimpses of what mattered; the values and worldviews of the people are inseparable from their teas. But don't get me started on the contemporary trends in fanciful names developed for commercial purposes in America today!
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