Example sentences
hē喝diǎn点chá茶ma吗？
Would you like some tea?
chá茶liáng凉le了。
The tea has gone cold.
The story behind the character
茶
茶 is a character the Tang dynasty invented. Before that it was written 荼, which meant a bitter herb. When tea drinking blew up in the Tang, Lu Yu wrote the Tea Classic and decided 荼 had one stroke too many. So he knocked one off and got 茶. The cup you're drinking now uses a character the tea saint trimmed by hand.