New Delhi, Sept. 21 -- My 13-year-old has taken to sharing Reels on the absurdities of language and how it can confuse one terribly if you're a new learner trying to grasp the rules. Like how "height" and "weight" are pronounced in English, or how "French fries" may not actually be French. Every language seems to take a jibe at another. They are good for a laugh. And even as I chuckled, I thought about how tea suffers from a similar confusion in its many names and what they actually mean. It rang home as I set out to brew a yellow and a purple tea this weekend.

Let's start with black tea. The Europeans called it black tea for its dark oxidised leaves. In China, it is hong cha-red tea-named for the colour of the liquor. So, is the tea nam...