Bohea

American  

[boh-hee] / boʊˈhi /

noun

1. an inferior grade of black tea.

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bohea British  

/ bəʊˈhiː /

noun

1. a black Chinese tea, once regarded as the choicest, but now as an inferior grade

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Etymology

Origin of Bohea

1695–1705; < dialectal Chinese (Fujian) Bu-i, mountains on the border of Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, where the tea is grown

Example Sentences

Next, I stepped into Oliver Pluff’s Tea Shop, which blends historically significant teas, like Colonial Bohea, recorded among the varieties tossed into Boston Harbor in 1773.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026

At Barrett’s apothecary, Eliza purchased jalap and Bohea tea.

From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson

People got to know him—quite important people, men who handled millions carelessly, like Julius Bohea, and Important Persons whose faces are familiar to the people of Britain, such as the Right Hon. George Parkinson Chenney.

From Bones in London by Wallace, Edgar

These four stocks are Bohea, Ankay, Hyson, and Singlo—names derived from the places in which they are particularly cultivated.

From The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 by Walsh, Robert

With this view, the Nature of Green, Souchong, and Bohea teas is first considered.

From A Treatise on Foreign Teas Abstracted From An Ingenious Work, Lately Published, Entitled An Essay On the Nerves by Smith, Hugh