Jim,

Cha ye = tea leaves
Cha = the tea in liquid form

That's because the company that you refer to does not sell tea in
liquid form. The produce and supply customers with the leaves.

Cha is still the universal term used for tea, but only in the context
of drinking it.
He cha (yum cha in cantonese) = drinking tea

If it's cha ye on the menu, most likely the restaurant/lounge/etc is
serving you with the tea leaves...not an already-brewed tea.

My 2 cents.

Phyll

On Apr 9, 10:01 am, "Space Cowboy" wrote:
Why is ChaYe used almost exclusively over Cha in a company name? I
double checked Google and my Rosetta Stone to verify the pattern. For
example ABC Tea Company uses ChaYe for Tea just not the single
character Cha. I noticed that again this weekend when helping Mal on
the second line of his CNNP neifei. The second line should read
Yunnan TeaLeaf(ChaYe) Branch Company not Yunnan Tea Branch Company. I
see this also in travel guides where ChaYe is used on the menu and not
just Cha. It looks like to me the universal term for tea in China is
ChaYe and not Cha.

Jim