Chinese green tea - Bi Luo Chun tea

green tea

Bi Luo Chun is a famous green tea originally grown in the Dong Ting mountain of Tai Hu, Jiangsu Province, China. Also known as Pi Lo Chun, it is renowned for its delicate appearance, fruity taste, floral aroma, showy white hairs and early cropping.
Bi Luo Chun literally means "Green Conch Spring".
It is called so because it is a green tea that is rolled into a tight spiral, resembling conch meat, and is cropped early spring.
Its original name is scarily fragrant. Legend tells of its discovery by a tea picker who ran out of space in her basket, and put the tea between her breasts instead. The tea, warmed by her body heat, emitted a strong aroma that surprised the girl. Since then, the tea were picked by women who washed before picking the tea and placed all the tea between their breasts.
According to the Qing Dynasty chronicle Ye Shi Da Guan, Emperor Kangxi visited TaiHu in the 38th year of his rule. At that time, because of its rich aroma, local people called it Xia Sha Ren Xiang or Scary Fragrance.
Kangxi decided to give it a more civilised name - Bi Luo Chun.
Chinese tea experts regard it very highly. Zhen Jun (1857 to 1918 A.D.), author of tea encyclopedia Cha Shuo, ranked it first among Chinese green tea. Longjing tea came second, Liu An Gua Pian came third.
It is so delicate and tender that one kilogram of Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun has 14,000 to 15,000 tea shoots.
Today, Bi Lo Chun is cultivated in Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Sichuan Province. The most esteemd Bi Luo Chun is still to be found in the Dong Ting Mountain.