Harvest time: end of March 2026

Origin: Wuling Mountain, Hunan, China

Garden height: 1200 m

Cultivar: from seed, Fuding Xiao Ye

Bi Luo Chun is one of the ten most famous Chinese teas. It is known for its thin, tightly twisted shape, silvery color, and fruity aroma and sweet taste.

Bi Luo Chun appears in history during the early Qing Dynasty from the locally famous Xia Sha Ren Xiang tea (meaning “stunningly fragrant”) that Emperor Kangxi received as a gift from a local official when he visited Dongting Island in 1699. The emperor was so enthusiastic about tea that he felt that the name of the tea Xia Sha Ren Xiang was not elegant enough and renamed it Bi Luo Chun (spring of jade snail). Thus, Bi Luo Chun tea became famous throughout the country.

Bi Luo Chun’s harvesting season runs from Chunfen (around March 21) to Qingming (around April 5). There are very strict criteria for Bi Luo Chun that require young and fresh leaves, so only one bud or a very tender leaf next to the bud is harvested. Bi Luo Chun most quality contains as many as fifty to sixty thousand buds for half a kilo of tea.

Fresh leaves after harvest are intensively sorted by hand to ensure that the material is even and tidy for further processing. Usually, picking is done in the morning from 5:00 – 9:00h, and manual sorting takes place between 9:00 – 15:00h. At the same time, the tea will wither and the roasting of tea continues after 15:00 until the night hours.

The traditional processing of Bi Luo Chun involves four basic steps in production: frying, rolling, group rubbing and shredding, and dry baking. All steps are carried out in an iron container, which is heated by a wood-burning stove. Using the simplest equipment, making Bi Luo Chun of the highest quality requires craftsmanship and manual work.

Production steps:

1. Frying. When the temperature of the iron pan reaches 190-200 °C, about 500 g of fresh leaves are placed in the pan, which are mixed by hand so that they are evenly fried. Frying is ready in 3-5 minutes. Inadequate frying results in red leaves and stalk, and over-frying will cause a burnt taste which is not allowed.

2. Rolling. After roasting, the tea is placed on a pan with a lower temperature for rolling. The temperature of the container is about 70-75 °C. Tea is thrown, roasted and rolled by hand. The procedure is repeated until 30-40% moisture remains in the leaves. Then the processing stops. The whole rolling process takes 12-15 minutes.

3. Rubbing to white ends. This processing is crucial for making a tightly curly tea body covered with white Bi Luo Chun tips. The temperature of the container here is about 60-70 °C. Tea will be rolled into small balls by hand and then scattered. This process is repeated until the tea leaves are tightly wrapped and the white tips come to the fore. Processing takes about 13-15 minutes. At the end of processing, the water content in the leaves remains about 20%.

4. Dry baking. The tea is placed in a pan with a temperature of about 50-60 °C. It is gently stirred and rolled by hand to further firm and dry. When the water content in the tea remains about 10%, the tea is placed on vegetable fiber paper and moved to a pan with a temperature of about 30-40 °C for further roasting and drying. Ultimately, the water content is below 7%.

From 500 grams of fresh tea leaves, about 100 grams of the end product is obtained with these roasting processes.

Preparation – kettle

• 3-4 g of tea
• 200 ml of water
• temp. 80°C
• 3 pour-overs: 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min

Preparation – gaiwan

• 4 g tea
• 110 ml of water
• temp. 80°C
• Overflow 5: 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 70s