Bi Luo Chun Green Tea (Pi Lo Chun)

On the 10th day of Sara’s Tea Advent Calendar…

It smells very vegetal! Should be good!

Oh wow, smooth and quite vegetal with a bit of artichoke. There’s a little astringency. There’s maybe a citrus note and some kind of spice at the end of the sip. This is some good quality green.

2017 Sample. I was impressed with the quality, it held up to the other far more expensive “legit” bi lou chun I’ve had. Will be ordering a big ol’ bag this year. Sharp, refreshing, tasted more like the traditional slightly floral flavor as opposed to the extra extra nutty flavor.

The appearance and aroma are very impressive. The taste is not particularly remarkable though. A rather generic green that is easy to turn bitter.

Vegetal and fairly smooth as it hits the tongue, the flavor morphs into a sweet fruitiness that most resembles Fruit Loops cereal, strangely enough, with the cereal grain predominating in the finish alongside a very slight floral note.

This was the final type of green tea from my Teavivre sampler pack and, alas, the only one I didn’t really care for. From the moment I opened the sample, the dry leaf made its presence known. It was strongly vegetal and spinachy, almost pungently so.

I let it steep and the liquor was still quite spinachy smelling. I love spinach but while spinach is the closest word I can come up with to describe the smell it isn’t quite accurate.

The taste, while not as strong as the smell, was dominated by the pungent vegetal taste. It started our sweet but then became hyper spinachy. As the tea cooled, the “spinach” became stronger. It also became more astringent as it cooled, something it wasn’t at all when hot, so, perhaps 2 minutes was too long for the first infusion. I didn’t bother with a second since I didn’t enjoy this one.

Teavivre sample 5/5

I got a bunch of teaware today from YS :D I’m so excited I finally have a serving pitcher and a cup that I can actually see the tea colour in! yay :D!

Anyways! From the moment I smelled this bi luo chun, I decided to save it for last, I have had it for a week or two and this is my first time having it and well that takes willpower after smelling this, just trust me. It smelled incredible.

It tastes very sweet and roasty, like sweet peas, toasted rice, bok choy, spinach, very very sweet at first. i got a slight bitterness on a couple of the steeps, but I managed to get rid of it with a shorter steep succeeding it. It gets less sweet after the beginning, more roasty in the middle of the session, and then I get corn and carrot notes, it fades out around the 8th or 9th steep, which is a bit longer than I expected, a lot of greens don’t last that long for me. The roasty notes were a lot like a genmaicha, which was really great because it balanced wonderfully with the incredibly sweet vegetals. Lovely balance in this one. Really quite something delicious, but I suspect you’ll need to be quite careful about your steeps, the slight bitterness kept coming back.

Very fragrant and green. Some bitterness.

Overall I don’t think Bi Luo Chun is my favourite type of tea, but the Teavivre version seems to be higher quality than the “Supreme Bi Luo Chun” I got from Dragon Tea House. The leaves are more intact and tightly curled, less ‘dust’, and have a more intense fragrance; floral perfume.

I used about half the sample (3g) in my 150ml glass gaiwan and skipped the rinse.

1st infusion: (30s, 178˚F)
Nutty, slightly savoury aroma with light vegetable broth flavour, and fresh and clear like spring water. (The DTH 碧螺春 had cloudy suspension, probably from the tea ‘dust’.) Ever so slightly astringent, maybe I need to go down to 2g of leaf or lower the temperature.

2nd infusion: (50s, 177˚F)
This was pretty astringent and tastes “off”. I think I overleafed or maybe I need to brew this at 175˚. Will try experimenting with the second half of the sample but yeah, apparently I find 碧螺春s really difficult to brew! Sticking with Dragon Wells as my favourite green for now.

Another really great green from teavivre. It’s my second unflavored green and, being new to tea, I was somewhat skeptical, is it really going to taste different from dragonwell? I was excited to discover a totally different flavor from the same plant. This tea was a little stronger than teavivre’s longjing, and on the first sip almost seemed spicy. As the cup cooled I started getting a hint of fruit. Definitely a tea I’ll be reordering. I’m hesitant to leave a number rating just because I really don’t know what to give it, it certainly would be high though!

Just had to add in the scent! I can’t really put my finger on it, but it smells delicious and fresh.

One of my favorites! Everytime I enjoy it. Fruity, sweet with just the slightest astringency at the end.