But Zedler's Lexicon (1745) in a long article on Thee gives Thee Bohea as "the worst sort of all." The other European trade-names, according to Zedler, were Thee-Peco, Congo which the Dutch called the best, but Thee Cancho was better still and dearer, and Chaucon best of all.
2. (TEA) CAMPOY, a black tea also. Kam-pui, the Canton pron. of the characters Kien-pei, "select-dry (over a fire)."
3. (TEA) CONGOU (a black tea). This is Kang-hu (tê) the Amoy pronunciation of the characters Kung-fu, 'work or labour.' [Mr. Pratt (9 ser. N. & Q. iv. 26) writes: "The N.E.D. under Congou derives it from the standard Chinese Kung-fu (which happens also to be the Cantonese spelling); 'the omission of the f,' we are told, 'is the foreigner's corruption.' It is nothing of the kind. The Amoy name for this tea is Kong-hu, so that the omission of the f is due to the local Chinese dialect.">[
4. HYSON (a green tea). This is He- (hei and ai in the south) -ch'un, 'bright spring,' [which Mr. Ball (Things Chinese, 586) writes yu-ts'in, 'before the rain'], characters which some say formed the [hong] name of a tea-merchant named Le, who was in the trade in the dist. of Hiu-ning (S.W. of Hang-chau) about 1700; others say that He-chun was Le's daughter, who was the first to separate the leaves, so as to make what is called Hyson. [Mr. Ball says that it is so called, "the young hyson being half-opened leaves plucked in April before the spring rains.">[
c. 1772.—
"And Venus, goddess of the eternal smile,
Knowing that stormy brows but ill become
Fair patterns of her beauty, hath ordained
Celestial Tea;—a fountain that can cure
The ills of passion, and can free from frowns.