A Cup of Tea, Please!

The origins of the word ‘Tea’ can be traced to ancient China. Various regions/dialects of China had different forms of the word; the most popular and lasting forms are “Te” as used in the Minion dialect and “Cha” as used by the Cantonese.

Now all over the civilized tea-drinking world today, how they refer to their cup of joy, is actually derived from either the Minion or Cantonese versions.

For example Britain and most of Europe (Tea, Tea Party, Tea Rooms etc) use derivatives of the Minion word ‘Te’.
While the Indian subcontinent, Japan and most of the Middle Easterners use derivatives of the Cantonese word ‘Cha’.

Okay, now a logical correlation that would suggest that we as Indians who use the word “Cha/Chai”, would actually have learnt/imbibed tea-drinking and tea-culture as a whole from the Canton Regions, or alternately from Traders/Trade Routes owing its origins to Cantonese China.

And by the same token, link Britain and most of Europe’s tea-drinking Culture to the Minion speaking regions of China.

But unfortunately, we aint in a perfect world and fallacies just never seem to run out. Figure this, though Britain sourced all its Tea from the Canton Regions, and more so all its trade routes ran through Canton. Yet Britain drinks “Tea” and not “Cha”!

Hmmm…interesting?!?!