Bi luo chun tea

Hi,

For Pi Lo Chun (Bi Luo Chun) if water is too hot to pour into your palm it's too hot to brew it. Water temperature should be 160-175 degree Fahrenheit, brew for about 1.5-2 minutes.

Yuriy.

Keep your water temperature really low. Start around 140F and work your way up until you find what you like best. Dong Ting Biluochun is supposed to be good stuff, though without seeing and tasting it myself (or knowing how much you paid) it's hard to say how good a find it is. I'd use a small porcelain gaiwan or a small porcelain pot as a brewing vessel. Steep times will vary and I'd start at around a minute and just work my way up. It's always better to understeep or use cooler water as subsequent steeps will not be ruined.

If you don't have a gaiwan it's probably worth getting one for this tea. Pre-heat the gaiwan with hot water, pour the water off and add the leaf and cover. Let the leaf sit in the hot gaiwan for a short while and uncover to enjoy the fragrance (which should be very rich if it's the good stuff). Then start brewing.

A good Biluochun is a very impressive tea, just a notch or two below a nice pre-Qing Ming Lungjing in my estimation. I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

Cameron

I suppose that makes about 70 degrees centigrade.

Thank you Yuriy.

I did that this morning, suspecting that the tea needed low-temperature water. I believe I overheated it a bit though.

This is exactly what bothers me, for this tea was really cheap - about 12 euros for 200 grams. I don't believe such a bargain is possible for really good tea, especially outside of China. However, the teas I have purchased at this place all seem quite good so far, and the choice of Yixing teapots is so nice that I can imagine the importers take equal care of their teas.

Besides, this importer shop also runs a small, pretty tea shop nearby, devoted to choice teas like new Taiwan Dong Ding, Ying Zheng, etc. That's where I found a Golden Pomelo for 50 euros, which seems a fair price, and this tea is a real miracle. So I should think they know about tea.

I've been thinking of getting a couple of gaiwan, so I'll follow your advice. At the tea shop I'm referring to above, they served me some white tea in a gaiwan and I found this a very nice way to enjoy tea.

Thanks for the precious information!

My experience with this tea in a classical teapot was nice but not overwhelming. Also, I think I may have used a bit too much heat. I'll tell you when I use the gaiwan method.

Thanks again!

Sophie

hi Sophie,

I hope the following information will help, I am building a web site about Chinese tea and you will find more in there later after I publish that, and the following is a brief introduction about Biluochun.

First of all, Biluochun is one of the most famous green tea in China. Its raw leaves are from Dongting Mountain in Wu County, Jiangsu province. The raw leaves are to be collected one week before Chunfen (an Chinese agricultural date, on which daytime has the same length with night, around 20th or 21st of March) and stop before Guyu (another agriculture date, 20th or 21st of April, the sun and the zodiacal plane form a 30 degree angle on the date). And the leaves collected between Chunfen and Qingming (another agriculture date, normally on the beginning of April, a 15 degree angle between the sun and the zodiacal circle) are of the best quality. Only a bud and its nearby young leaf will be plucked (as an unit leaf), and normally the bud has a length between 1.6 and 2.0 cm and the leave has a shape of a sparrow tongue. The top quality Biluochun will have 68-70 thousand units' leaves per 500 gram.

After raw leaves collecting, irregular shape bud-leave will be removed from the collection. And normally this process will last 2-4 hours for one 1000-gram bud-leaf. After this, the bud-leaf will be classified into 7 groups by its size. Top class bud-leaves are those smallest in size and most hairy/fury bud.

The drying process is to be carried out by manual, i.e., stir leaves on a heating pan with (a loving and caring) hand; a general principle will be, hands always on the leaves, and leaves always on the heating pan, hence when leaves leave the pan, the job is done.

When serving, clear glasses are to be used to enjoy the shape, and the water temperature is to be controlled around 70-80 C.

It is common believed that the name Biluochun was given by an emperor in Qing (Manchu) dynasty, ruin name Qianlong, person's name Hongli Axinjueluo. Bi is a kind of green jade, normally combined with the color green to beautify something in lovely green, luo refers to a kind of snail, resident in river and mating in spring, and Chun means spring. These three words jointly give an image of a lovely and lively spring in Chinese language.

About the taste? That will be the domain out of the range of language.

Biluochun used to be known as "Xiasharen Xiang" before Qianlong name it. Xiasharen means scaring to death, and Xiang means aroma. And the following is a story about it.

Before the tea was found, local folks found that there was a strange smell in the Dongting Mountain, and believed that is was some kind of unholy resident in the mountain and hence tried their best to avoid getting in. But one day, a brave girl had to get some wood for firing and then getting in. When she climbe to the waist of the mountain, she found this "scaring to death" aroma. And she thought that the unholy was approaching and then… what will you do in that case? Yes, she began to run. Strangely, no matter how fast she run, she could never get rid of that aroma. Being scared, she lost. And when it was dark, she reached the end of one cliff. She found in there nothing but several tea plants and strangely again, she found that aroma wasn't scaring at all but so attractive. Hence she plucked some leaves and leave. When she went back home, she took out the leaves and suddenly the room was filled by the "scaring" aroma. And later she decided to dry those leaves and drink them as tea. The result? Maybe one could feel the same as she felt when first drink the tea, and obviously she loved it. Later she transplanted some in her garden, and Xiasharen Xiang (Scaring Aroma) became the name and began to be spread. Finally the emperor heard this and gave it a more beautiful name, Biluochun.

DLG

Sophie: About:

The origin place for Biluochun is in Jiangsu, but not Taiwan. And don't worry about the price, as long as it is safe to drink and you like it, that's fine. Because the living cost in China is relatively lower than western Europe, and the tea from the supplier couldn't be expensive. And normally the price from the offical supplier for Biluochun (early spring harvest) is lower than Longjing, (sth wrong with my internet link to China, so can't check the price) could be around 20-100 US dollar per 500 gram, grade 1 to 7. And if the tea is from Taiwan and packed locally then delivered to Europe, then the cost could be much lower.

About:

teapots is

When people mention Yixing teapots, that could means either mormal clay product, which should not that expensive, or Yixing Zisha teapots, which made by a kind of very special clay, you can find more information about Zisha teapot on Mike's site.

But the market for Zisha is not that healthy, lots of dealer will price the normal clay pots as the price of Zisha, or charge a normal made at a very higher price. I only know one good Zisha dealer on line which only deal with its own product, that site is in Chinese and both the dealer and the web server is in Yixing city.

About:

IF the water temperature is lower than 70C degree, you could have the taste diffused slower, but cannot let out the aroma enough; it is all up to your taste, just bear those facts in mind to serve your taste.

About:

Again, this is a matter of personal taste, a gaiwan is not necessarily for serving green or white tea. And if you want to enjoy the beauty of the leaves, clear glasses will do it much better, and if you do so you will find the difference. ^_^ People in Fujian province tend to use clay pots and hot water to serve green tea in a gongfucha style, I personaly don't like it for I don't keen on gongfucha style on green tea, but I like it with Tie Guanyin and some MinHong, because Fujian province is a province for Wulong and Red tea but not green tea.

I found gaiwan is more suitable for Wulong and some white tea, and it you want to try those, then it is worth buying, and to those crazy on Wulong (like me) that will be a must. And you can find some information about gaiwan methods in here:

DLG

I am sorry for using Fahrenheit measures with a French woman. 140F should be about 60C (I'm Canadian, but the Americans create the standards regardless of what the rest of the world says). The best Chinese green teas will brew at room temperature and lower temperatures are safest. A porcelain gaiwan (which creates sweet tea and strong contrast between colours) is best. Glass is nice, but makes the liquor colour harder to judge.

The gongfu method is rarely effective with green tea. Yixing clays tend hold too much heat for these delicate teas and leaf quantity should be kept lower than oolongs brewed by the gongfu method.

Please judge a tea according to it's taste and aroma rather than it's price. Profit margins may change but flavour is eternal (at least while the tea is fresh). A good price may just be good fortune for you.

Bienvenue au R.F.D.T,

Cameron Lewis of the great Province of Manitoba

As I understand it, there is a Dong Ting/Dong Ding mountain in China as well as Taiwan. This is the area, in Jiangsu province, to which I am refering.

Regards,

Cameron

That's OK, I'm a food writer so I'm used to temperature conversions.

It's true that a pure white background is best for judging the colour of precious liquids. That is why the colour of wines is checked through the glass with the white tablecloth used as a background.

This is very interesting. I'm rather new to tea and I was surprised to discover that the gongfu method was not appropriate for very delicate teas.

I will tell you how good my fortune was once I try the gaiwan method...

Royaume Fabuleux Du Thé ?

Thanks for all your information Sophie of the beautiful (though slightly tea-forsaken) city of Paris

(...)

Hi DLG,

And many thanks for this lovely and extensive story of Biluochun tea. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing your website...

:-) sophie

snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com5/1/04

Not to correct you, but just to get my barings, you mean 1.6 and 2 mm, I think.

Not to mention logic. Of all the teas I "know," BLC has one of the widest ranges of variation. This leads me to suspect that there is a lot of phony BLC out there. This conclusion is also based on the remarkable amount of skill and work that goes into a real one as described so skillfully by DLG.

Thank you DLG. That's a wonderful story, and undoubtedly true.

Michael

How about divulging this site?

Sophie Frisch