The Story of Bi Luo Chun, Spring Snail

Hunting for  Bi Luo Chun In 2006's tea hunt trip, Kam decided to find out more about Bi Luo Chun - a tea with huge reputation. On the 10 most famous Chinese teas, Bi Luo Chun's name is as loud as the super famous Dragon Well, yet it's not as commercialized as Dragon Well. Bi Luo Chun is famous but still has this natural temperament. You just don't see makeup on her face.    Facts about BiLuoChun    Her name means Bi (green) Luo (snail) Chun (Spring)  Bi Luo Chun's place of origin is the Jiang Su province of China. (map of China provinces)  Bi Luo Chun belongs to the green tea class  Bi Luo Chun is one of the 10 most famous Chinese teas, and probably the most famous of the famous   History of  Bi Luo Chun Bi Luo Chun was born during the Tang Dynasty and gain popularity during the Song Dynasty . By the Ming and Qing Dynasty , it's presence was found all over southern China. Bi Luo Chun was first called "Scaringly aromatic" but this unrefined name was later changed by a Qing Emperor. It's green, it's spiral, and it's being picked in Spring, and so it got it's beautiful name.   The Bi Luo Chun Trip, Apr. 2006  Skip the long train ride, crowed buses and dirty inns, Kam was on the hills which BiLuoChun tea trees are growing prosperously. Chinese people believe plants that absorb the spirit of sky and earth would grow in prosperity.  Bi Luo Chun tea trees grow on hillside, and face Lake Tai. She gets all the good spirit she needs. Bi Luo Chun is not quite "tree" enough, it's bushy. The green new grown is what tea drinkers are going after. The leave bud, yes, the leave bud is in fact the tea we drink. Kam grabbed a leave bud with excitement because he had never seen BiLuoChun in her infancy stage. Holy bud.   Kam got excited seeing Ms. Teapicker picking tea. But Ms. Teapicker thought, "what is the big deal?"  Ms. Teapicker said she was picking tea for a tea plantation. The whole side of this hill belongs to that tea plantation. The plantation takes care of the tea trees throughout the year.  20 days before Qing Ming Festival (5th Apr. solar calendar, not lunar), Bi Luo Chun harvest starts. The harvest stops about 3 days after Qing Ming. Keep the tea trees for a year and only get to pick them for 23 days!!?? That is not fair!       Ms. Teapicker said this tea she is picking will retail for US$200/500g. Ok, Kam had never realized that picking on others can be this fruitful ...   Say cheese...  Oh never mind. You are a piece of wood! Aunt Teapicker2 joined the action. She drove a motor bike to work. Cool.   Aunt Teapicker3 took her "pick" to tea makers.  After tailing Aunt Teapicker3 for 45 mins, without police intervention, Kam was brought to a family style tea maker. Before reading on, please give Aunt Teapicker3 and the tea maker family a round of applause. At tea makers' place, sorting started. Tea makers have to hand sort the buds ONE BY ONE. The pile in the middle was to be sorted. The tea makers picked up leave buds from the middle, removed withered leaves, put good buds to the left, and unwanted leaves or buds to the right. Unwanted leaves without buds are sometime sold as "tea feet" at super cheap prices. Faster than the speed of light ...   The good buds. And lots of good buds. This will go into the frying stage. Withered tea seeds from last winer - not part of the tea. One leave bud + 1 hairy leave is the perfect basic building element of BiLuoChun.  Attention: it's Kam's thumb at the bottom. Thank you.     open fire! Time = 0 min. The wok was being heated. Frying would being in a minute. The first stage is called "green killing". In this stage, leaves are quick fried so to take away their grassy taste. Time = 1 min. A droplet of water was put in the wok to test temperature. It rolled up and down, and then, vanishes in the form of steam.    Time = 1-2 min. For those who are familiar with stir frying, this would be easy to understand. Hands, faced down, picked up the leaves, hands flipped upwards, and leaves were dispersed loosely so that they had more surface area to absorb heat.     Time = 5 min. The leaves dried up a little, lost volume and turned dull. Time = 7-8 min. Kept frying. The temperature in the wok was over 200C so tea maker had to wear gloves. Time = 8 min. Near end of first stage. Fire power lowered. Gloves off. Time = 9 min. The "green killing" process was done. Tea leaves were taken out of the wok to cool off for about 5 mins.       Time = 14 min. The real frying stage started.   "How-much"es in 500g of BiLuoChun  Leave buds lose water and thus weight after being fried. Early harvest takes about 2.1kg, and later harvest takes about 1.9kg of fresh leave buds to make 500g of BiLuoChun.  Early harvested leave buds are small and tender. There are about 70,000 leave buds in 500g. Later harvest has bigger buds - about 30,000 buds in 500g.  Imagine picking 30,000 - 70,000 leave buds, plus wastage, to make 500g of tea. This makes Kam, who consumes LOTs of tea per day, feel bad.  First batch of Spring tea calls for prices like US$300+/500g.       Time = 14-35min. The frying acting was pretty much like that in the "green killing" stage added one more step - the tea leaves were rubbed between the palms in a circular manner. At time 28m, the leaves curled up and started to look like snails.   See, BiLuoChun is pretty much like us. She gets white hair as time goes by.   Time = 41 min. Tiny white hair started to gather. It's not dust, it's the hair form the tea leaves.   Time = 50 min. Bi Luo Chun, you are fired.  If  fried at night, process would take more than an hour. Tea was left to cool off and would be ready for market in a few hours. Don't think this dark colored tea had lost it's green days of glory. When put into hot water, BiLuoChun's refreshing green color came back as if the frying process had never happened. Amazing.  So that is the story of Bi Luo Chun. Buying Bi Luo Chun at a tea shop is one thing, seeing Bi Luo Chun being made is another. Kam now has much more appreciation for the tea making process. It's not something you can copy-and-paste on the computer with a few key strokes, and it's not something you can unlimitedly duplicate on a printer, it's a process that requires hard work and heart.  Next time you look at a glass of Bi Luo Chun in your hands, remember, besides the great flavor, there are tons of good spirit in there.