From the article, OED definition 3 for "char": https://www.lexico.com/definition/char#h69854260165380
The main article on tea in the history and origin section has some of the earliest attestations in English cited:
"The first record of tea in English came from a letter written by Richard Wickham, who ran an East India Company office in Japan, writing to a merchant in Macao requesting "the best sort of chaw" in 1615. Peter Mundy, a traveller and merchant who came across tea in Fujian in 1637, wrote, "chaa – only water with a kind of herb boyled in it ".[45][46]"
Slightly connected: I Just recently learned frkm Wikipedia that the word coco/côco from the coconut fruit comes from a portuguese folklore figure that i never heard of. Which is weird because I am portuguese and my parents also never heard of any similar folklore. We have a an expression which translates to "break the coco laughing" which i always took to be related to the fruit and now I think it may be a remnant of the folklore figure that gave the name to the coconut fruit.
Also, based on the series there is this popular music "A Cuca te pega", or in a free English translation: "The Cuca catch you". [3]
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADtio_do_Picapau_Amarel...
I've never, ever encountered "cha" or "char" in my English speaking country (US) - is this something commonly encountered in England?