>> Monkeys, though, never lose their touch.
>>
>
> Tea-trained Golden Monkeys die in their twenties, which isn't a whole lot
> better.
>
> What is a tea affectionado to do?
>

Train the men to climb trees next?

Jim, you know what I'm going to say about the nuance of a language blah
blah blah so I'll skip that and go straight to your questions

Nü Er can take to mean Daughter, Girl (addressing in affection), Maiden
(also addressing in affection)

Cha we know is Tea

When you place Nü Er, followed by Cha and feed it to Babelfish, the machine
will select the closest match based on 2 characters, in this case, Nü & Er,
as well as Er & Cha, hence giving you "Female" and "Catecha"
respectively...the latter is probably a mutation of "Catechin" of which in
chinese is called "Er Cha Su".

Next, the term Nü Er and its relation to tea. In the novel Story of the
Stone (aka Dream of the Red Chamber), this tea was mentioned in chapter 63
as a tea to wash down the grease after food, and it hinted that it was a
pu'er variety.

There are 2 types of Nü Er Cha: In the Yunnan, young girls would pick the
young leaves in the early months of the year, and when they gathered enough
a certain amount, they would trade the harvest for money, which was set
aside as their dowry - hence tea made from this young flush is called Nü Er
Cha. Somewhat related is that the compressed tea cakes (as tribute offering
for the imperial court), made from the harvest, and smaller in size compared
to the other compressed teas, is also named Nü Er Cha, for its small size
and young flush tea ingredient. These tribute tea cakes eventually
developed into bowl size compressed tea - some suggested lewdly its sexual
connotation - as tuochas.

The modern equivalent of the Nü Er Cha, in its loose form is often
considered to be the Bai Zhen Jin Lian - White Needle Golden Lotus pu'er.

There is another Nü Er Cha known as Nü Er Huang - my preferred translation
for this is Maiden's Curls, though some would say Daughter's Rings etc etc.
This is a relatively new tea known as Crafted Tea or, Gong Yi Cha. The
leaf, at about 4cm, is picked and steamed, and then rolled round a stick
with a small width. When the tea is dried, it is slipped off the stick and
dried further. The end product looks like a Cheerio ring...

Danny