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Dongting Bi Luo Chun Green Tea
Bi Luo Chun 碧螺春 is one of the 10 most famous Chinese Tea. It is originated in Dongting Mountain, situated next to the Taihu Lake in Su Zhou, Jiangsu province. Taihu Lake is one of the third largest fresh water lake in China, the production area of Bi Luo Chun is divided as East Mountain (Dong Shan) and West Mountain (Xi Shan), which is the eastern and western peninsula of the Taihu Lake respectively. Both side of the mountain has a unique geographical environment and natural advantage in producing high quality tea.
This year’s batch of Bi Luo Chun is handmade by a local farmer, from West Mountain of Dongting Mountain. The tea is handmade instead of machine-made, it is curled in snail-shape like the “Bee’s legs”, and it is covered with apparent white pekoe, you will find the tea liquor looks like a mist floating with pekoe in the first few steeps, create special umami and sweetness.
This year, we reserved a batch of Bi Luo Chun tea a tea farm located in the high mountain area of Dong Shan (East Mountain):
First Flush Batch (Premium Grade One):
- Harvested in early spring, in March.
- The plucking standard is one bud and one to two leaves.
- The dry leaves are relatively small and adorned with abundant white pekoe.
- The taste of this tea is remarkably fresh and sweet, accompanied by a well-balanced floral and fruity fragrance that is highly pleasurable.
History of Bi Luo Chun
Bi Luo Chun tea has a history of more than 1000 years. It was first called Dong Ting tea, also known as Xia Sha Ren Xiang, translated as “Shocking Fragrance”. It is said that a nun went up to Dong Ting Mountain for a trip in spring and picked a few pieces of tea. After making the tea, she found it extremely aromatic and blurted out “the fragrance is so scary”, so she called this tea “scaring”.
After some years, when Emperor Kangxi went to the mountain, he praised it after tasting the tea, but he also felt that the name “Shocking Fragrance” was indecent. He renamed it as Bi Luo Chun, translated as “Green Snail Spring” – “Bi” means emerald green, just like the clear and green tea soup; “Luo” means snail, the dry leaves is shaped curly like a snail; “Chun” means spring, and it is picked in early spring. Since then, Bi Luo Chun became a tribute tea and has become famous all over the world.
Does the unique fruity and floral notes in Bi Luo Chun have anything to do with the flowers and fruits in the tea garden?
Bi Luo Chun tea, known as the “fairy in the tea”, is famous for its unique fragrance of flower and fruit. The Bi Luo Chun tea garden in Dongting mountain is characterized by the planting between lots of citrus, bayberry, loquat and other fruit trees. It was said that the tea absorbs the surrounding fragrance of fruit and flower, which make it having a unique floral and fruity aroma. Some scientific reports proved that plants do absorb the fragrance in the growing environment. In fact, what plants are planted in the tea garden are not directly related to the aroma of the tea, but it definitely means that the ecological environment of the tea garden is good and diversified, which positively related to the quality of the tea planted there.
The making process of Bi Luo Chun
The plucking requirement for Bi Luo Chun tea is very strict, it need to be picked early, pick the clean and tender one. The most skilled tea picker can only pick up to 2kg of fresh leave a day. The picked fresh leaves are delivered to the tea factory as soon as possible, and the making process needed to be finished within one day.
Picking the fresh leaves
Selecting – only one bud one leaves is selected
Kill-green – frying in a wok and using high temperature to inactivate the enzymes
Kneading/Rolling – roll the tea into curled shapes
Rubbing – rub the tea in a “tea dough” to show the white pekoe
Baking dry – drying the tea with mild heat
Harvest Date: 28 March 2025
Weight per pack: 50g/ 125g/ 250g
Tea Farm Location: Dong Shan (East Mountain), Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Varietal: Bi Luo Chun
Types of Green Tea (Green-killing method): Chao Qing/ Pan-fried Green Tea
Tasting Notes: crisp, creamy, nutty, beans, floral, fruity, sweet, umami of white pekoe
Dry Leaves Appearance: small, curled snail, full of white pekoe
Tea Liquor Colour: Bright and clear light green
Brewing Method (Adjust with your own taste):
Gaiwan Style: 3-4g Tea| 150-200ml water (85-90°c) | 1-3 infusion : 10-15’s, After : Add 5’s each
Glass Style: prepare a tall glass, pre-warm the glass by rinsing it, fill your glass with 85-90°c water, add tea leaves (3g), let it rest for 1 minute, enjoy (Don’t drink the whole glass, left 1/3 of Tea liquor in the glass for resteeping, add 30’s each time)
