Afternoon Tea
The name given to the meal taken mid-afternoon, comprising of light food accompanied by tea. The 7th Duchess of Bedford is reputed to have thought up the idea of afternoon tea, early in the 19th century, because of hunger pangs she suffered between lunch and dinner.

Amoy
Fulien oolong teas marketed at Amoy.

Anhwei, Anhui
A tea growing province in China.

Assam
A tea growing region in northeastern India, The tea is ideally robust, and of high quality, characterised by it’s smooth round and malty flavour.

Auction
Sale of tea in an auction room on a stipulated date at a specific time. Tea auctions are held in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya and Malawi- these auctions only sell teas from their particular areas. Brokers take bids for factories and plantations which produce the tea.

Autumnal
The term is applied to teas from India and Formosa where the tea harvested in Autumn is touched by cool weather.

Ball tea
Chinese tea compressed in a ball to protect it against atmospheric effects

Basket-fired
Japanese tea that has been cured in baskets by firing or drying.

Bergamot
A citrus tree (Citrus bergamia) grown in southern Italy that produces a bitter, orange-like fruit not eaten fresh. Bergamot oil is the key aromatic ingredient of the famous Earl Grey blend of tea


Billy tea
Tea made in billy cans by early settlers in Australia.

Bitter tea
Tea brewing method used in Kashmir. Tea is boiled in a tinned copper vessel, red potash, aniseed and salt are added before it is served from a brass or copper, tinlined teapot.

Black tea
The most commonly produce type of tea.It is fired or dried after the fermentation or oxidisation period of manufacture. Black tea is processed in four stages: withering, rolling, oxidation, and drying.

Blender
Tea taster who decides on the proportions of each different tea required to produce the flavour of a given blend.



Bodhidharma
Sixth century Indian Buddhist monk who, according to Indian and Japanese myth, discovered tea. Bodhidharma was born near Madras and travelled to China in 520, where he met the emperor.

Boston Tea Party
An act of defiance by American patriots against the Tea Act of 1773 which levied taxes into tea imports. In December of that year, a group of colonists boarded British ships in Boston harbour and tossed 342 chests of East India Company tea into the water. Their action hastened the approach of the American War of Independence.

Bohea
Tea from the Wu-i Hills in Fukien, China. Originally was applied to black China tea and to tea from Indonesia. In the 18th century Bohea (Bo-hee) was the name given to the tea drink.

Break
An measurement of tea - a given number of chests or sacks of tea.


Brick Tea
Common grades of China and Japan tea mixed with stalk and dust and moulded into bricks under high pressure. Originally, these bricks were used by Asian travellers as a convenient way of carrying and preserving the tea they needed to drink and trade.

Broker
A tea taster who negotiates the selling of tea from producers, or the buying of tea for packers and dealers, for a brokerage fee from the party on whose behalf the broker is working.

Bubble Tea
Taiwanese concoctions using tea and various fruits juices and flavours. Increasingly popular around the world. Sometimes alcohol is used.

Butter Tea
Boiled tea mixed with salt and soda, then strained into an urn containing butter and dried ground cereal (often barley) and churned. Butter tea is served in a basin and often a lump of butter is added when serving. It was served in Tibet and then in India.

Cachar
The most common variety of India tea, produced in Cachar district of Assam.

Caddy
The name given to a tin or jar of tea, which takes its name from the Chinese or Malayan word 'catty'- a term used to describe the weight of one pound of tea. In the past tea caddies were equipped with a lock and key.


Camellia sinensis
The botanical name for the tea plant.


Caravan tea
Tea taken by camel from China to Russia in the past.

Catechins
One of a group of antioxidants known as flavonoids that occur naturally in tea. Catechins are said to be 20 times more effective as antioxidants than vitamin C.

Ceylon
Blends of teas grown on the island of Sri Lanka, which take their name from the colonial name for the island. The traditional name of Sri Lanka was readopted by the island when it became a Sovereign Republic in the Commonwealth in 1972.

Cha
The word for tea derived from the Chinese and Indian languages.

Chanoyu
The word for tea derived from the Chinese and Indian languages.

Chest
Original tea package, normally made of wood and lined with metal foil. Originally tea chests were lined with lead.

Ching Wo
Black tea from Fujien province.

Clonal teas
Tea bushes grown from cuttings taken from a plant with desirable qualities. This produces identical tea bushes, all bearing the same qualities as the parent plant.

Cut, Tear, and Curl (CTC)
A processing method for the production of small particles for strong, quick-brewing tea. CTC is ideal for processing tea for use in tea bags.

Dengyo Daishi
A Japanese Buddhist monk who spent time in China. He returned to Japan with tea seeds He is said to have introduced the new the new drink to the Emperor Saga, who propogated the growth of the plant more widely.

Earl Grey (1764–1845)
Charles, 2nd Earl Grey was Prime Minister of the U.K in the 19th Century, but was best-known for the blend of tea with bergamot that still bears his name.

East India Company
A private company that was granted a monopoly over British trade with the East. The East India Company had a great effect on the history of tea, initially through its control of the tea trade with China, and then by introducing tea-production in India.

EPIGALLOCATECHIN GALLATE (EGCG, ECG, EGC, EC):
A group (family) which are directly related to catechins (see above). These appear mostly in green tea but also in black tea in a somewhat changed configuration.

Flavonoids
One of a group of naturally-occurring phenolic compounds, many of which are plant pigments. Flavonoids are found in tea and have antioxidant properties.

FREE RADICAL
This is a substance which can bring about negative changes in the body as a result of its oxidizing effects. Some changes include: hardening of the arteries and onset of certain cancers.

Green tea
A type of tea in which the leaves are withered, rolled, and fired but, unlike black or oolong, is not subject to a process of oxidation. Green tea originated in China. Production is still confined to a few Asian countries.

Pearl Tea - Twisted Green Tea

Gyokoru tea
Japan's finest grade of green tea, usually reserved for special occasions. The leaves are picked after a period of shading that concentrates the chlorophyll to provide a deep green colour and a sweeter taste.

Iced tea
Fresh-brewed tea served in a tall glass with ice cubes, a slice of lemon slotted to the rim, and a long spoon for stirring in sugar or honey. Iced tea was invented at the 1904 St Louis World Fair by an expatriate Englishman called Richard Blechynden. It is the most popular way of drinking tea in America.

ISO standard cup of tea
A cup of tea with milk and one teaspoon of sugar, where the milk is poured into the cup before the tea.

Japanese Tea Ceremony (chanoyu)
A ceremony originally developed by Buddhist monks as a way of staying awake during meditation. The ritual was at its height of popularity between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. The ceremony's greatest exponent was Sen Rikyú.

Lion Logo
The official seal of quality given by the Ceylon tea board.


Matcha tea
A powdered green tea drunk in Japan, especially at the Tea Ceremony where it is whisked into a frothy green liquor. Matcha, which has a short shelf-life, is produced by milling tencha tea.

Maté
A tea-like drink enjoyed by the gauchos of Argentina. Maté is an infusion of Ilex paraguariensis, a South American species of holly. It is drunk through a straw from a gourd-shaped drinking vessel.

Oolong tea
A less common type of tea produced in four stages: withering, rolling, oxidation, and drying. Of the two tea types that are oxidised (black and oolong), oolong undergoes the shortest process of oxidation. Oolong is sometimes known as semi-fermented brown tea.


OXIDATION
Any change caused by oxygen.

POLYPHENOLS
Certain plant compounds containing groups of ‘phenols’ and which also contain certain antioxidant characteristics.

POLYPHENOLIC COMPOUNDS
These plant chemicals consist of several groups. Each group has a oxygen and a hydrogen atom, which is called a phenol group.

Roller Tea
Orthodox teas from low grown estates in Sri Lanka. The teas are rolled and twisted.

Rooibos
A red-coloured, tea-like infusion drunk in South Africa. Rooibos (pronounced 'roy-boss') is made from the leaves of Aspalathus linearis, a low-growing bush from the Cedarberg Mountains of the Western Cape. The plant was first identified in 1772 by the Swedish botanist, Carl Thunberg.

Sabi
Tranquillity – one of the principles established by Sen Rikyú that underpin the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Samovar
An ornately decorated Russian tea urn that supplies hot tea throughout the day. Samovars consist of a metal urn containing water, topped by a cradle that holds a teapot. Heat comes from an internal charcoal-burning pipe. Modern samovars are heated electrically.

Taylor, James
A Scotsman who first experimented with tea planting in Sri Lanka in 1867. By 1872 he had established a tea factory and, a year later, was selling Ceylon tea in London. Taylor's pioneering efforts contributed to the early success of the Ceylon tea industry.


Tea bag
A sealed paper bag containing finely-divided, quick-brewing tea. Tea bags are the most popular way of brewing tea in Britain and the US. Teabag machines have been developed in various countries around the world leading to several different types of tea bag standards.


Tea chest
A foil-lined wooden box for transporting tea. The original lining was lead foil; nowadays aluminium foil is used. These days most tea is shipped in foil-lined paper sacks; only the finest teas still travel in wooden chests.

Tea Sourcing Partnership (TSP)
An organisation dedicated to improving the conditions under which tea is produced through credible, independent monitoring.

Tencha tea
A type of green tea that is ground down to make the famous matcha powdered tea used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

THEAFLAVINS
These chemicals produce a yellowish or golden color in black teas.

THEARUBIGINS
These chemicals are actually the red or brown pigments in tea leaves which are responsible for the color of the tea. Brown pigments occur in India teas (and elsewhere if the parentage of the bushes is India) and red pigments occur in Chinese teas.

White tea
A rare tea found in China. These special leaves are not fermented, and the amber leaves stand up on end when served.