Chinese Tea Jargon

Tea jargon differs with respect to dialect and geographical location. Kam speaks Cantonese (as oppose to Mandarin, the official language of China) and he is from Hong Kong (southern China). Information below, if not specified, is Cantonese and southern China based. You feel like a water drinker when fellow Chinese tea drinkers talk in Chinese tea jargon that you don't understand. It's not trying to be cool, you simply have to learn the language. Period. Here is a list of Chinese tea jargon and commonly mentioned words you will come across in a Chinese tea gathering.    The Jargon List Jargon in Mandarin (Cantonese) Meaning in English Cha (Cha) tea *you can skip Math, but not this one if you want to be a tea drinker Pao (Pau) noun: amount of tea leaves enough for one brew verb: brew (Yat Pau Cha)   "A complete cycle of brewing". A "Pau" starts when new tea leaves is added, ends when all it's flavor is  being extracted and brewing stops, regardless of the number of infusions in between. (Yat Chung Cha) "An infusion of tea". An infusion into the brewing container. Gong Fu Cha (Kung Fu Cha) A well-know brewing method. Full pictured illustration of Kung Fu Cha here. GaiWan (Guk Jung) "Lidded Bowl". A 3-piece porcelain cup with lid, cup and plate used for tea brewing.  Large (6oz) and small (4oz) GaiWans can be used for different tea brewing methods. here on how to handle a GaiWan here on relevant brewing methods Cha Tang (Cha Tong) "Tea Soup" by direct translation. Means the tea come out of a brewing process. A fancy name for "tea". Cha Hai (Cha Hoi) "Tea Sea". Fancy name for a tea tray. Ku (Fu) Plain bitterness - one type of bitterness. Plain and flat. It's the kind of "bitter" most of us understand. Se (Gip) Rough bitterness - one type of bitterness. "Rough" as opposed to "smooth". Acute bitterness at the middle to the back of the tongue accompanied by a "not-at-all-smooth" feeling when rubbing the tongue against the roof of the month. This is the worst you can get from a brewing process. Gan (Gum) Minty bitterness - one type of bitterness. It's a 2 dimensional taste. Slightly bitter first, then comes the slightly sweet taste (not exactly sweat but forgive me, I can't tell exactly in English). When breathing, the tongue & month gets a cool feeling. If it's strong enough, it keeps coming back for a long while and it's called Hui Gan (see below). Hui Gan  (Wui Gum) "Recurring Gan". See above for explanation of  Gan. Sang Jin (Sang Jun) "Stimulates Saliva". Saliva cells activated and working. To feel saliva flowing into the mouth is a wonderful feeling. Also, it is the best way to quench your thirst.