Bi Luo Chun Green Tea (Pi Lo Chun)

Another day, another interesting Teavivre sample to try. I love their vast array of tea and the inexpensive samples which are a great way to try a lot of different teas on the cheap. Green tea, to me is their strong suit and I’ve enjoyed working my way through their offerings.

The latest one happens to be Bi Luo Chun and is the first of its kind for me. This is a light bodied green tea without any astringency and mellow flavor. The dry leaf has a sweet seaweed aroma and the wet leaf has the aroma of grass and steamed vegetables. The first steep is mild, lightly vegetal and brothy. A nice balance of sweet and savory. Later steeps are decidedly vegetal. There is a hint of seaweed as it goes down. Not a whole lot of flavor though. Increasing steep times leads to a marine flavor which I’m not a big fan of.

This is a mild tea that may appeal to people new to green tea. Unfortunately it didn’t do much for me. To me, this is squarely middle of the road and has a very typical green tea flavor. Nothing really memorable about it. I do however like it better in kahva than the gunpowder tea I normally use and it’s also pretty good cold-steeped for a couple of hours.

Very smooth green tea, barely any astringency. It has a kind of Japanese green essence about it without the smack-you-in-the-face (or rather, tongue) with GREENS!!! effect. But, then, thats exactly what I love about those Japanese greens. haha

Nevertheless, this tea is not bad per my standards. It manages to pull off the spirit of the Japanese umami without going all out vegetal. A good green for those who can’t handle the power of the green ;)

Admittedly, even I have overdone it with the heavy greens and needed a break – this would be a good choice when I want to tone it down a bit.

Dry leaf is vegetal and floral in scent.

Brewed tea has a strong spinach aroma.

Savoury sweetness on the sip. Slight melon tone. A bit bland at the beginning of the sip. Slightly thin mouthfeel.

This is another wonderful spring tea of 2015. I opened up the package and reveled tiny cute (if tea can be cute) curls of forest green and silver. These little twirls had small downy hairs lining them, and they carried a strong vegetal tone of green beans with a honeydew sweetness. I placed them inside my warmed kyusu and gave em a shake. This sweet scent became a lot more deeper and robust. It changed into a bold spinach tone. I brewed up a cup and drank. The initial sip was a strong vegetal tone with still a honey sweetness. This brew became sweeter after steeping. The second steeping I used cooler water (175F) to get that honey tone to be more pronounced. The third steeping I used hotter water (190F) to get a deeper spring flavor. This was an awesome green tea! It had a nice and full spring flavor of a vegetable gardens with still keeping it sweet like honey.

Brewed with a gongfu glass tea pot. 5-second rinse. Steeping parameters: 60, 75, 90, 120.

My first Bi Luo Chun. I have to say that the aspects I took most pleasure out of were the physical appearance of the leaves and the tactile sensation of handling the leaves by hand.

Short, thin, minty green, curly little things. The leaves are so light, they could weigh practically nothing on the Moon. While I waited for the water to heat, I stuck my hand in the tea pot and gently tossed and turned them over. I think I’d enjoy rolling them in the pan to dry them out, if I ever get the chance tour the creation process.

The dry leaf aroma smells sweetly of freshly cut lawn. The wet leaf, in contrast, offers heavier aroma of cooked asparagus and cream of spinach.

The color of the liquor is greenish, which looks bright against the white of my porcelain cup. To my surprise, the liquor is not clear but very cloudy. Lots of unexpected fuzzies, especially in this first infusion. I didn’t see the hairs on the dry leaf. Guess I should have taken a closer look at the picture on the website….I notice that the darker green leaves have few hairs. My sample contains practically all lightly colored leaves. The liquor becomes more pellucid as the session goes on.

The first infusion has a creamy texture and broth-like consistency. There are notes of savory, green vegetable flavors – beans, spinach, and okra. Hmmmm. I dislike okra, but since I get none of the sliminess: huzzah! The second infusion has a thinner texture, and is much sweeter, veggie-wise, with a pea note. Back to thick and soupy with the third infusion. It is also tangy and somewhat fruity sweet, with a lychee taste that appears if I let the liquor rest in my mouth before swallowing.

Three is all I get, forget the fourth. Bi Luo Chun – or at least this one – is more complex than I’d thought. It’s a little on the heavy side for me as a green tea. Still, generally enjoyable!

This is the Spring 2014 harvest of this tea, so I’m more than a little behind with my stash currently. I think I picked this one out today because I’ve been drinking a couple of Butiki teas, and the last Bi Luo Chun I tried was a Butiki also, and I loved it. Good memories, I suppose. I’m not a fan of all green teas, but Bi Luo Chun is one I really, really like. The dry leaf is very thin and wiry, and a little tangled. It’s quite a dark green in colour, although with some paler, and some almost white, tips. The scent is absolutely amazing – very savoury and vegetal, like spinach and green beans. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it approximately 2 minutes in water cooled to 180 degrees. The resulting liquor is a pale yellow, and (again!) smells wonderful. Not as strong as the dry leaf, but still savoury and vegetal. I love it.

To taste, it’s just as lovely as the scent led me to believe. It’s not a strong or heavy flavour, like some green teas have, but it’s not watery or a struggle to taste either. It strikes the perfect balance in my estimation – clear, clean, mid-strength flavours. It’s also perfectly smooth, with no hint of astringency, which is something else I’ve come to love about this variety. The main flavours, as in the scent, are vegetal – green beans, still, and freshly cooked spinach. A very green, very clean flavour. There’s almost a slight saltiness about it, and the tiniest hint of sweetness at the end of the sip that puts me firmly in mind of buttered green vegetables. Not that there was any doubt about that, but it’s a wonderful final flourish.

I’m really enjoying this one, and I’m glad to have found a green variety that I can really and truly say I appreciate. This is definitely one I’ll come back to in the future – hopefully with a more recent harvest! It’ll be interesting to compare and see how the harvests differ, but I like this one so much I can only hope there’s not too much difference.

2022 Sipdown 15/365!

The remainder of an open packet of this tea. It was ok, but I’m sure it was better when fresh/first opened! Classic buttery green bean sort of flavours, though not as sweet as some. Quite enjoyable regardless.

when i smell the tea leaves dry, they smell like a lovely green tea :D

when i smell the tea leaves wet, they smell great :P

when i smell the brewed tea, the tea smells flowery and fruity.

when i drink the tea, the tea tastes flowery and fruity too and a lot like dragonwell green tea :)

I tried this from a sample that a fellow member sent me …and this was the worst tea I have every had. It tasted like raw eggplant/squash mixed with ivory soap and my teaware never touchs any soap of any kind.

I was so sure that I would have reviewed this tea already. But I couldn’t find my review, so I thought steepster was eating the reviews again. I then sashayed over to the teavivre website but I had not posted a review there, so I shamefully have to say that this one was my fault. This was a free sample from Teavivre. Thank you so much Angel, you’re the best!

This tea so sooooooooo cute :) It is little, loosely curles leaves of differing shades of green. It is a perfect looking fall tea. The tea has a strong cabbage type smell, which is my favorite.

The first taste I get from the tea is fresh sweetness and a very slightly caramelized flavour. It is smooth and milky. I feel like in the very first part of the sip there is a quick saltiness to the tea, almost like Sencha, but it soon disappears. There is a cabbage flavour but it is very light. There are faint hints of a green tea floral. I feel like I am getting hints of spinach and turnips. To me this feels like an autumn tea. It is very crisp. This tea is very fresh and clean on the palate, I am not getting much of an aftertaste, which is very pleasant.