Culture · Tea · Green tea (绿茶)
Bi Luo Chun (Pi Lo Chun)
碧螺春 · Bì Luó Chūn. Tightly spiral-rolled green tea grown among fruit trees on Taihu lakeshore islands, producing a floral, fruity, light-bodied liquor.
About this tea
Bi Luo Chun — Green Snail Spring — takes its name from its appearance: the leaves are rolled into tiny spiral pellets resembling snail shells. The tea originates on the Dongting East and West Mountains, two peninsulas extending into Taihu (Lake Tai) in Jiangsu. The growing environment is unusual: tea bushes are interplanted with plum, apricot, peach, and citrus trees, and the proximity of fruit blossoms during the harvest season contributes a distinctive floral-fruity character to the leaves.
The harvest is extremely labour-intensive. Only the terminal bud and one tiny leaf are plucked. A kilogram of finished tea requires picking 60,000–80,000 individual buds. Processing is immediate: the leaves are wok-fired and simultaneously rolled by hand into the signature spirals.
The liquor is pale, almost colourless, with a noticeably floral nose — some tasters detect apricot or white peach — and a sweet, clean finish. It is one of the lightest-bodied of the classic Chinese greens, with low astringency and a tendency to taste almost milky in the first steeping.
How to brew
Water at 70–75 °C. 3 g per 150 ml. Steep 45–60 seconds for the first infusion; 30–40 seconds thereafter. 3 infusions maximum — this tea fades quickly. Brew in a tall glass to watch the spirals unfurl.
Where to buy
- Suzhou's Guanqian Street tea shops — ask for Dongting Bi Luo Chun specifically
- Taihu lakeside farms on Dongting West Mountain (accessible by ferry from Suzhou)
- Suzhou Silk and Tea Museum gift shop
- Online: Tea Classico, What-Cha (UK), Teavivre (vetted origin)