Hi Joel,

Look at my Puerh Shapes page http://www.pu-erh.net/puerhshapes.html
or my Puerh Rosetta Page http://www.pu-erh.net/rosetta.html for the
Chinese characters of these terms then look up the characters at
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict for the
literal definitions.

>I've done a little research, including asking a couple of Chinese
>people I know, but have been unable to determine this to my
>satisfaction. Can anyone confirm or correct the following?
>
>In both words, "cha" simply means tea.
Yes, that is accurate
>"bingcha" is tea compressed into a disc-like shape.
Yes, that is accurate
>"tuocha" is tea compressed into a bowl shape (bird's nest?)
Yes, that is accurate
>Any variety of tea can, theoretically, be packed as bingcha or tuocha,
>i.e. it's not limited to pu-erh. Are greens sometimes packed this way
>too?
Yes I have seen greens packed this way although it is uncommon.

>Finally, does anyone know the *literal* translation of the two words?
pu'er = a town in China known for tea trading since ancient times
cha (as in puer tea) = cha2/tea/tea plant
bing (as in cake puer) = bing3 / round flat cake / cookie / cake /
pastry /
tuo (as in bowl shaped puer) = tuo2/river/streams/waterways
tuocha (2 symbols together) = "Bowl-shaped brick tea"
tuan (as in ball shaped puer) = tuan2/roll around with hand
fang (as in square puer) = fang1/a square/rectangle/a region; local
zhuan (as in brick puer) - zhuan1/ tile/ brick
jin = (I know it means small brick shape but I have not researched the
proper Chinese character)
san (as in loose leaf puer) = san4/scatter/ disperse/ break up



Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net
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