“[C]olors are used in the tea world as a system of categorizing the various teas in existence. In the West we are mostly familiar with what we call black tea. . . . In the last dozen years or so, green tea . . . has made a grand comeback. . . . More recently, we are being introduced to some of the rarest and most expensive teas: white teas. Three colorsblack, green, whitesounds simple. Yet white teas are a type of green tea, according to some. What we call black teas are considered red teas in China. And the Chinese oolong (or wu-long) tea . . . is not a recognizable color in Western languages, although in Chinese wu means dark, black. . . .”

—Beatrice Hohenegger, Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, 2006.