Tea Blog

Language is an ever-changing thing, as anyone who has tried to read Chaucer or Shakespeare can attest.

The British Library even created

an educational resource on how the English language has evolved over time

to document some of these changes.

Not surprisingly, the language of tea has evolved as well.

Some terms that were once common are now rarely used. I explored several of these in

this overview of archaic and obsolete tea terminology

published a few years ago.

More recently, I examined older classifications such as
Bohea
and
Hyson and Singlo,
terms that were once widely used but have largely fallen out of modern usage.

The Case of Congou Tea

Another example is the term “Congou.”

At first glance, it might seem obsolete, but a closer look reveals that some tea merchants still use this classification.

According to Merriam-Webster, “congou” is defined as

a type of black tea originating from China
,
though that definition lacks specificity.

The term dates back to at least 1725 and refers to teas from the Fujian region of China.

Congou teas are sometimes described as the “claret of Chinese tea,” drawing a comparison to red wines from Bordeaux.

While the term remains somewhat obscure today, a related variety—Panyang Congou—is more familiar under another name: Golden Monkey tea.

You can learn more about that variety in

this article explaining the origins and characteristics of Golden Monkey tea
.

See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles

on the tea blog author archive page
.

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