The purpose of this page is to help me add definitions to Babelcarp.
I often run into new bits of possible Tea Chinese - Pinyin or Chinese characters - that I can't figure out. More often than not, this is because Babelcarp has logged a query it could not satisfy.
This page is my attempt to open up the process of solving these problems. You may know some things I don't know, and if you're inclined to help, you may be able to define one of the possible tea terms in the table below. (Or you may want to convince me that one of these phrases has no tea meaning whatsoever - that's just as useful.)
At any time, there will probably be a number of rows in the table below. Each will have some version of a possible Chinese tea term in the left-hand column. In the corresponding right-hand column, there will be a text field to fill in, plus a Send button. If you have something to say about the left-hand field, please write your thoughts in the text box and click the Send button. This will ask your browser to send me an email consisting of the possible Chinese and your analysis.
By the way, clicking the Send button will send me only the results of one row of the table. This is because I don't expect a given user to know everything! Sorry, but if you have something to say about two rows of the table, you'll need to click Send twice.
Please note that, near the bottom of the table, there may be rows that have been grayed out and lack Send buttons. These are problems that have been solved already. They will not remain forever, though; they represent additions to Babelcarp itself.
Thanks very much, Lew Perin
-->| Possible tea term | What you think it is |
|---|---|
| There's a Wuyi yancha called Ban Tian Yao that some people hype as one of the Wu (not Si!) Da Ming Cong. This tea gets spelled as Waist in the Middle of the Sky (半天腰), referring to a narrowing of the cliff; or Half Day Perish (半天夭), which I'm guessing refers to how many steeps you can expect. Which is it? - They must be the same tea, no? | |
| Silk Road Teas, notorious for its mis-romanizations but usually very good in supplying Phoenix oolongs, sometimes has a Phoenix they call Guo Jiang Xiang. Nobody else ever seems to have it, and the only de-romanization I can think of for it (果酱香 or 果醬香) doesn't show up on the Web in a context that looks useful to me. Is this a snark or something real? | |
| There's a Phoenix Mountain oolong (cultivar?) called Bai Xian, but I can't for the life of me figure out the Chinese characters for it. | |
| There's a very good Pu'er company called 弗茶居. Yunnan Sourcing, which normally romanizes well, calls them Fo Cha Ji, but I think it should be Fu Cha Ju. The Fo/Fu thing is especially interesting. A Chinese friend of mine looked at a picture of a wrapper of theirs yesterday and thought it was Fo (Buddha/Buddhist) even though the Person radical isn't there. Am I missing something? | |
| Chang Hao (昌号 or 昌號) is a pair of words that come up in lots of brands of Pu'er, e.g. Yi Chang Hao, Shu Chang Hao. I don't understand what Chang adds to Hao that Chang's literal meaning justifies. Is this just hype that's meant to suggest the tradition of Jing Chang Hao? | |
| tou tian xiang (透天香) | |
| tian fei cha (减肥茶) = less fertile [fat] tea? | |
| 揉条 = rou tiao | |
| 揉茶 = rou cha (massage tea?) | |
| 湿仓 = shi cang (wet granary) |