چای

The Persian word چای traveled the Silk Road. Mandarin 茶 (chá) reached Persia overland through Central Asia and stayed. The same root then went on to Russian (чай), Hindi (chāī), Turkish (çay), and Arabic (شاي). The maritime route, using the Min Nan Chinese reading "te," gave Dutch and English their "tea" instead. Whether a country says "cha" or "tea" is a small map of how the leaves arrived: by land or by sea. Iran caught the land route, which is part of why your Tehrani host insists you stay for one more glass.