Bi Luo Chun

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Dongting Mountain — 20–350 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

The plants it is made from

Cultivar is the level below the variety group: a named selection of the tea plant, propagated as clones from one parent. Most consumer writing stops at the country and the category, which leaves out the layer that decides how the leaf behaves before anyone picks it.

• Camellia sinensis var. sinensis — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Small, narrow, serrated leaves on a shrubby bush with good cold tolerance. Slower-growing and lower-yielding than assamica, and associated with more aromatic, less tannic character — which is why it dominates in the categories where aroma matters most.

• Dongting Qun Ti Zhong — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Very small, downy buds picked at an extremely fine standard, on plants that vary individually. Selections have been made from the population, so a Biluochun may be landrace material or a clone taken out of it, and labels rarely distinguish.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Withering — Reduces water content, softens the leaf for later handling, and permits early enzymatic and aromatic development.
2. 2. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
3. 3. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
4. 4. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Chinese pan-fired green tea — Heat first, shape second. The route puts fixation at position three, before the leaf has been ruptured at all, and everything that follows happens to a leaf that has stopped changing colour.

  Where it is practised: Practised across almost every Chinese producing province, and in Korea, Vietnam and increasingly in Japanese kamairicha production, where it is the minority method.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Catechins, cis-3-Hexenol, EGC (epigallocatechin), Leaf lipids.

• Withering
  • creates Geraniol
  • creates Linalool
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Theasinensins
  • raises Methyl salicylate
  • raises Nerolidol
  • raises Soluble sugars
  • lowers cis-3-Hexenol
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • lowers Leaf lipids
• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

Recorded under the Kangxi emperor, who is said to have renamed it from a local name considered too coarse for court use. It has been a tribute tea since, and the spiral shape is achieved entirely by hand-rolling.

Widely repeated legend — Repeated very widely and not evidenced. Recorded because the story is itself part of the culture, not because it happened.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1–2 g/100 ml · 70–80 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Grandpa style

  0.5–1 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  3–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 4 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Flash-chilled iced tea

  2.5–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Glass teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Cold brew tea

  1.2–2 g/100 ml · 4–10 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Glass teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

Vessels this tea suits

Recorded against the tea rather than against a brewing style, because the vessel does not always follow from the method — a whisk needs lateral room whatever the schedule says, and compressed leaf needs a pick before any method applies at all.

• Double-walled glass — A downy curled green watched as it sinks, without a hot outer wall.

Common mistakes

• Pouring hot water directly onto the fine leaf, which scorches it
• Steeping it as long as a leafier green

When the cup goes wrong

Written against green tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 37 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• I bought a big bag to save money and it was stale before I finished it — A large quantity bought at a good unit price faded well before it was drunk, so the saving turned into waste.
• I bought a water filter for my tea and it changed nothing — A filter jug or tap filter was bought specifically to improve the tea, and the cup tastes the same as it did before — with the same dullness, the same film and the same scale in the kettle.
• I have too many teas open and most of them are going stale — A dozen or more packets are open at once, three or four get drunk regularly, and the rest fade quietly on the shelf until they are thrown away.
• Leaves stick to the cup, the pot and my teeth — Fine leaf clings to the inside of the vessel, comes through into the cup, and ends up in the last mouthful.
• My bamboo whisk is losing tines — Fine bamboo tines snap off during whisking and turn up in the bowl, and the whisk feels stiff and splayed.
• My cold brew tastes like faintly flavoured water — After a night in the fridge the jug is pale and tastes of very little, with none of the sweetness cold brewing is supposed to give.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Longjing vs Bi Luo Chun — The two most famous Chinese green teas, both from the lower Yangtze, both hand-shaped, and shaped in opposite directions. Put the two side by side

Where this tea is drunk

Documented practices that name this tea. Each page describes what is done and by whom, and separates what is recorded from what is repeated.

• Everyday Chinese tea: the flask, the jar and the leaf left in — How most tea in China is actually drunk — loose leaf dropped into a lidded glass or a vacuum flask, topped up with hot water all day, never decanted and never timed.

Journeys featuring this tea

• Exploring green tea — Someone who wants to understand green tea rather than tolerate it.
• Discover Chinese tea — Someone who wants the breadth of the country tea came from.

Guides covering this tea

• Why green tea is the hardest category to make well