Comments on: Tea types (or colours)

By: admin

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:23:37 +0000

Qing (青) is not an easy character to translate and its meaning varies depending on context. In Xiandai Hanyu Cidian (现代汉语词典) the first two definitions are 1. green or blue (蓝色或绿色), 2. black (黑色). In this case, I chose to translate it as “dark green”, because it conveys the fact that “dark green tea” is an intermediate tea type between “green tea” and the fully oxidised or fermented “red” or “black” teas, both in its colour and in its processing.

For me, “dark green tea” and “wulong tea” refer to the same tea type.

By: Michael J. Coffey

Michael J. Coffey — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:25:58 +0000

I’m curious about your translation of 青茶 as “dark tea”. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to call it “blue” or “blue-green” rather than “dark”? I usually see 黑茶 translated as “dark tea” which makes more sense to me. I looked up 青 in four Chinese dictionaries and none of them translated it as dark; the reverse was the same–looking up “dark” gave lots of 黑 but no 青.

Also, I’m curious about your thoughts on the idea that some Taiwanese tea producers have that 青茶 only refers to the lightly-oxidized wulong teas like the greener 铁观音, whereas 乌龙茶 refers to the more deeply-oxidized teas like the darker 铁观音 styles.

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Tweets that mention Tea types (or colours) | Chinese Tea Files -- Topsy.com — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:04:03 +0000

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By: lahikmajoe

lahikmajoe — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:42:08 +0000

Thank you for making this concise and clear post.

It describes the different kinds of tea in a way that I can pass on to people when they ask about the differences. Thanks again.