Definition of "hyson" [hy•son]

• A type of Chinese green tea with twisted leaves. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This consists of the young leaf buds just as they begin to unfold, and forms a fine and delicate kind of young hyson, which is held in high estimation by the natives, and is generally sent about in small quantities as presents to their friends."
• "The guests -- Alexander Hamilton, Quaker merchant Henry Drinker, and "several Ladies" -- sipped cups of hyson tea, sweetened with equal amounts of cane and maple sugar."
• "Old ladies of family over their hyson, and grey-haired lairds over their punch, I had often heard utter a little harmless treason; while the former remembered having led down a dance with the Chevalier, and the latter recounted the feats they had performed at Preston, Clifton, and Falkirk."