Type of tea is the name of a communications language

Factual Questions
1

I was reading a Nancy Kress short story the other day, “Steamship Soldier on The Information Front” set a hundred or so years in the future where the information highway is almost instantaneous, etc. Anyway, one character referred to the old geezers back at the turn of the century, back when they named a computer after a fruit and a communications language after a type of tea. The computer/fruit is easy enough–Apple. What the hell is the language/tea?

Sir

Mods, once/if this has been answered, please delete, if needed.

2

I think they’re talking about Java. I know, it’s not tea, but I expect the author is being clever about the way some facts get twisted slightly as they pass through time.