Water Bear Tea Collective

Across languages, there are two primary ways of referring to the golden liquid we all love - chai or tea.

English (tea), Dutch (thee), Tamil (te-neer) or Hindi (chai), Persian (chay), Arabic (shay)

The reason is interesting, showing how the imprint of globalization remains on languages.

Tea originated in China and it was represented by the letter "茶" - this character was called "cha" in Mandarin spoken in mainland China and "te" in Min Nan variety of Chinese, spoken in the coastal province of Fujian.

The countries that got tea via China through the Silk Road (land) referred to it in various forms of the word "cha". On the other hand, the countries that traded with China via sea - through the Min Nan port called it in different forms of "te".

Interestingly, Portugal traded with China from the Macaw port instead of Fujian and thus uniquely adopted cha, in contrast with its neighboring countries.

We miss sharing tea with all of you!

Tea events next week:
Tea & Poetry - Monday 7pm
Tea & Folk Concert - Friday 8pm
Brewing 101 - March 7 2pm

Aged teas aren't something one tends to find on the supermarket shelf, or even in most specialty tea shops, yet there are numerous categories of aged tea, and hundreds of varieties within some of these categories. We sometimes sample pu-erh, the most obvious of the aged tea types, but this time we'll be bringing a bunch of other fun ones you may not have tried. We'll pilfer our private aging stash and bring out some fun ones for everyone to try!