Jim,

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

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

I guess in English we understand in which form the tea is depending on
the context, but my understanding is that in Chinese they use the noun
"ye" to clarify that it is the leaves they are referring to, and not
the liquid tea.

Cha is the universal term used for tea, though in daily use it is
understood as the liquid form.

He cha (yum cha in cantonese) = drinking tea

To further complicate, in the hokkien dialect, however, we (my
father's side of the family speaks hokkien) say "chia(k) de", which
means "eat tea" to refer to the act of drinking tea.

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

My 2 cents.

Phyll
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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