A little Chinese

[tsusentei]

I haven't really seen it on wrappers much, but I haven't been looking either... I find that it is used throughout Asian tea industries to mean less-processed or greener teas. It seems like you would have a bunch of cakes Sal, doesn't appear on any of yours?

Here is a translator that I use for some Chinese tea terms:

http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.c ... g1%20Bing3

[tsusentei]

Ok, so I randomly checked 8 cakes and three of them had "qing" written on the label. It occured twice in the "ingredients" section and once on the face of the label. So, perhaps more technical usage than anything else. It is written in the ingredients as "qing mao cha" or "green/raw mao cha", maocha being the basic tea which is pressed into cakes.

[Salsero]

It seems like you would have a bunch of cakes Sal, doesn't appear on any of yours?

OK, caught in the act of being lazy!

Now I have examined maybe 20 or 25 sheng cakes. I didn't find any qing cha characters, but on maybe a third of them I didn't find the sheng cha character either. I also examined maybe 10 shu wrappers and only found a couple where I was able to locate the shu cha characters.

Boy, looking at these things is hard work!

[gingkoseto]

So what is "Qing Cha"
青茶
which is given as an alternate for "sheng cha" in the Wikipedia article on puerh? Does one ever encounter that term on wrappers?

Qing is one of the trickiest characters in Chinese. Sometimes it means green (color of grass), sometimes blue (color of sky), sometimes black (color of evening dress).

Qing Cha is the traditional name for oolong, because traditional oolong looked very much black compared with most other teas (and the black tea, in Asia, is always called "red tea", and puerh sometimes is called "black tea").

When Qing is used for puerh, its usually used in Qing Beeng (sheng) instead of Qing Cha, in order not to be mixed with oolong.

If Qing Cha is seen in puerh package, usually there is another character right before it, to make the term either Chao Qing Cha (stirfry green puerh), Hong Qing Cha (roast green puerh), or Shai Qing Cha (sun-dried green puerh).

I don't know if I somewhat explained Qing or made it more confusing You asked about one of the difficult words!

[gingkoseto]

Ok, so I randomly checked 8 cakes and three of them had "qing" written on the label. It occured twice in the "ingredients" section and once on the face of the label. So, perhaps more technical usage than anything else. It is written in the ingredients as "qing mao cha" or "green/raw mao cha", maocha being the basic tea which is pressed into cakes.

Before the first Qing, there is Shai, to make it Shai Qing (sun-dried green)
Before the 2nd Qing, there is another character, I guess, to make a name of the manufacturing company.
Before the 3rd Qing, there is Shai again, to make it Shai Qing again.

[Salsero]

Ok, so I randomly checked 8 cakes

Cool! and great images too. I never got into that much detail to read the ingredients! I guess I'll have to drag those cakes back out again!

Another question: if I see the "sheng" character anywhere on the wrapper, but not followed by "cha" (remember I don't understand any words around it) does that mean the cake is sheng? ... or might it have some other meaning and the word occasionally appear on a shu wrapper?

[tsusentei]

I guess we won't be seeing "Special Qing Beeng!" written in bold letters across the face of a cake, but more discreetly placed on the back for additional information.

I really don't have many shu cakes, so I don't know about the sheng written on shu wrappers.

This is a great topic! Very informational. Thanks Gingko for the Chinese!

[Salsero]

Wow, I am loving this thread. Thanks for the additional insight, Gingko. This is great!

[wyardley]

So what is "Qing Cha"
青茶
which is given as an alternate for "sheng cha" in the Wikipedia article on puerh? Does one ever encounter that term on wrappers?

qīng chá (青茶) typically refers to semi-green (i.e., oolong) tea; "green" tea would be lǜ chá (绿茶). But people do use 'qīng' to refer to pu'er tea too, e.g., "qīing bǐng". I'm not sure if you can say qīng chá, though, since that would mean something else.

[puerhking]

a couple more

bu lang shan yuan cha



bu lang shan da shu cha

bu lang mountain big tree tea - in this case shu means tree instead of cooked

you can see the character for sheng on bottom left of the green circle.

[tony shlongini]

Very cool thread.

[taitea]

This thread is very helpful. A local vendor (who isn't so well informed) has 3 cakes that he claims are 2 years old. One has writing in black, one in green, one whiteish (the layout of the text on the 3 cakes is all the same). Correspondingly, he claims they are black, green and white cakes. There was no english writing on the cakes, so I'll use these recently acquired chinese detective skills the next time I'm in the shop.

Are there any tricks for recognizing factory names?

[xuancheng]

Also, you have to be careful which direction you are supposed to read the characters. 茶青 chaqing is the fresh picked tea leaf that has yet to undergo any processing.

[taitea]

I believe this is one that reads from right to left? What does it say?

p.s. I stole the image from Jim at puerhshop, I hope that's ok

[wyardley]

I believe this is one that reads from right to left? What does it say?

I believe the part around the top says (in traditional characters):
中國茶業公司雲南省公司
zhōngguó (China) chá (tea) yè (indutry) gōng sī (company) yúnnán (Yunnan) shěng (province) gōng sī (company / branch)

Middle is the 茶 character inside 8 中, of course.

bottom should be:
中茶牌圓茶
zhōng chá pái yuán chá
(roughly 'China Tea [Zhongcha] Brand Round Tea [cake])