焦げ茶
こげちゃ · kogecha · JLPT N1 · noun
brown
焦 — bird 隹 over fire 灬
焦 is an associative compound showing a short-tailed bird (隹) above fire (灬), depicting roasting a bird until scorched. The original sense was 'burnt' or 'charred,' which extended to 'scorched, dried out,' and metaphorically to 'anxious, worried' (as in 焦急).
茶 — grass radical 艹 + 余 (phonetic)
茶 combines the grass radical 艹, indicating a plant, with 余 serving as the phonetic component. It originally derived from the older character 荼, which referred broadly to bitter herbs; a stroke was dropped during the Tang dynasty to distinguish the tea plant specifically. Today it means tea.