 A tea estate. Photo by Fabel Nard | SXC.
March 2005
Updated July 2009
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Types Of Tea & Tea Terminology
Tea Glossary Page 2: Terms With B
This is Page 2 of a 15-page glossary. Click on the links below to visit other pages. This Tea Glossary is one of our more than 60+ food glossaries.
Click on the letter of the alphabet in this bar to get to a term:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
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Baggy: An unpleasant taste, referring to tea that has been carried or wrapped in unlined burlap bags.
Bakey: An unpleasant taste caused by firing the leaf at too high a temperature (over-firing) and removing too much moisture. Not as strong a flavor as burnt.
 Ball Tea: Chinese tea compressed into a ball for protection. See also brick tea.
Bancha: A Japanese green tea produced from the bottom part of tea leaves, large and thick leaves that produce a slightly less aromatic and somewhat more astringent brew than sencha. It is preferred by people who seek a more robust flavor.
Bancha tea, at right, is available from RishiTea.com.
Basket Fired: Japanese tea that has been cured in baskets by firing or drying.
Bergamot: The essential oil of the bergamot orange, used to flavor a black tea that is then called Earl Grey tea.
Billy: The Australian term for a tin pot with a wire handle, suspended over an open fire to boil tea.
Biscuity: A pleasant characteristic often associated with Assam teas.
Bitter: An unpleasant taste associated with raw teas or over-steeped teas. |
 Photo of bergamot orange courtesy of
BergamottoConsorzio.it.
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Bitter Tea: A style of tea brewed in Kashmir. Tea is boiled in a copper vessel. Red potash, aniseed and salt are added to the tea before it is served, traditionally from a brass or tin-lined copper teapot.
Black Cohosh Tea: An herbal tea used to ease the symptoms of menopause and menstrual discomfort. It is also used for cough, hardening of the arteries, high cholesterol levels and rheumatism. Black cohosh has not been evaluated by the FDA for effectiveness or safety.
Black Tea: Black tea is green tea that has been oxidized by fermentation. Black tea is the most common form of tea drunk worldwide. Black tea is fully oxidized and roasted (oolong is half-oxidized). The green tea leaves are allowed to oxidize, or ferment, for two to four hours, to a black color. After plucking and gathering, the leaves are spread out in the air, and then hand-tossed until they become soft and flaccid, when they are roasted for a few minutes, and rolled. They are then exposed to the air for a few hours in a soft and moist state, finally withered or dried slowly over a low heat charcoal fire. Then they are fired at a higher temperature to fix the flavor of the tea before being sorted into different leaf quality and sizes. The operation of roasting and rolling is sometimes repeated several times, until the leaves have become the proper color.
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 Photo of black tea courtesy of MorgueFile.
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When brewed, black tea forms a reddish or reddish-brown liquor or color, has a maltose flavor and a rich flowery aroma. The principal grades of black tea are Bohea (the poorest quality); Congou; Oolong; Souchong, one of the finest varieties; and Pekoe, a fine-flavored kind, made chiefly from young spring buds. Styles of black tea, based on provenance and/or blend, include: Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling, English Breakfast, Golden Needle, Irish Breakfast, Keemun, Lapsang Souchong, Keemun, and Yunnan.
Black tea contains the most caffeine of all teas (due to the extended firing process), but much less than coffee: about 40 mg per cup, depending on strength and steeping time. Coffee, by comparison, has 80 to 100 mg per cup. The water-extractable polyphenol content of black tea ranges from 3% to 10%; green tea has between 30% and 40%.
Black teas: Lapsang Souchong, Orange Pekoe, Orchid Vanilla, Orange Spice. Photo courtesy of TeaForte.com.
Blend or Blended Tea: Many teas—e.g. English Breakfast and Earl Grey—are not a single variety but are blends of different teas. Blends are created by a tea taster who decides what proportions of each different tea leaf are required to produce the flavor of the blend. In addition to creating distinctive flavors, blending is used to create consistency in taste from one growing season to the next. Read more about blended tea.
Body: The strength of the liquor combined with its viscosity (weight on the tongue). Body may be full, light, et al. A tea with good body has both fullness and strength, as opposed to being thin and weak.
Bohea: Tea from the Wu-i Hills in Fukien, China. Originally, the term was applied both to black China tea and to tea from Indonesia. In the 18th century, Bohea, or Bo-hee, was the generic name given to the tea drink.
Bouquet: All of the characteristics of smell that are perceived through the nose when one sniffs the teas.
Breakfast Tea: A tea that tastes delicious when served in the traditional Western breakfast-style, with milk and sugar, generally a black tea or blend. Examples include Chai (black tea flavored with Indian spices), Earl Grey (black tea flavored with bergamot orange), English Breakfast (Assam) and Orange Pekoe (ceylon black tea).
 Bubble Tea: (photo at left) A sweet, cold, black or green tea drink created in Taiwan in the 1980s. It is made in a myriad of flavors with large chewy balls or “pearls” of tapioca (the “bubbles” at the bottom of the cup, which come in gray-black or beige-white). The teas are offered in a milky version, made of tea, milk and a flavored powder, poured into a glass with ice and tapioca balls; and a “freeze” made with tea, fresh fruit, simple syrup, ice and tapioca balls.
Brassy: Unpleasant metallic tang or acidic bite from improperly withered tea.
Brew: One of several terms, also including infusion and liquor, that refer to the brewed tea.
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Brick Tea: Common or inferior grades of tea leaves that have been steamed and compressed into bricks along with tea dust. Often, a design is pressed into the surface. Originally, these bricks were used by Asian travelers as a convenient way of carrying the tea they needed to drink. The bricks were also used to barter for other goods. The tea is typically shaved and boiled with butter and salt to make a soup.
Bright: The quality of a lively fresh tea of good quality. Also used to describe a lively, bright appearance: a bright red brew or light leaf, as opposed to a dull brown or black color.
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 Brick tea. Photo courtesy of SXC.
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Brisk: Lively, not flat: a tea high in astringency. The term as been trademarked by Lipton.
Broker: A tea taster who negotiates the selling of tea from producers, or the buying of tea for packers and dealers, for a brokerage fee.
Butter Tea: A beverage first served in Tibet, then in India, where boiled tea is mixed with salt and soda. It is then strained into an urn containing butter and dried ground cereal (often barley), churned, and served in a basin. Often a lump of butter is added when serving.
Continue To Page 3: Tea Terms Beginning With C
Go To The Alphabet Index Above
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