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

Dear Sir: The annual consumption of teas in Nova Scotia is about 20 chests Bohea, and 3 or 4 of good Common Green.

From Tea Leaves Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction, notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party) by Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

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

Bohea tea, an inferior kind of black tea.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah