Struggling with Bi Luo Chun A

[chittychat]

I purchased Bi Luo Chun A from Yunnan and had the greatest difficulties with this tea to the point I wanted to throw it away. My first try of brewing standard gong fu yielded a near tasteless water. Playing with combinations of greater amounts of tea, longer steeping, water temperatue, you name it, resulted mostly in a bitter undrinkable brew especially after the second infusion. I now finally managed to tame this tea and arrived at a drinkable brew.

Water at about 80 C, about 3 grams of tea. Wet leaves for 10 sec and discard water. Steep with 250 ml of water for 2 min, 2nd infusion for 90 sec same amount of water and sometimes a 3rd infusion at same rations.

The tea has a delicate aroma and flavor if one can do it right and one has to be darn careful. Looking at the leaves after brewing one can see only the first young buds were used. Bi Luo Chun A, A is for first choice.

Do others have similar experiences with this kind of tea?

[tenuki]

I find if you leave a bit of the water in each time instead of pouring it all out you get better results. And yes, you have found the same approximate sweet spot I have. (I brew somewhat shorter times, especially the first one, and more than three, but the quality of the BLC I get might be better than what you have.)

[beachape]

I'm quite a fan of dongting biluochun. Sometimes I'll pile in the leaves and it never seems to get bitter. Seems it might be some poor quality leaf. Don't let this sour you on biluochun in general.

I never rinse green tea. I know it is hand made, but i'm not that worried. Maybe try that.

[gingkoseto]

Dong Ting BLC usually doesn't get bitter, because it's all early spring leaves and harvest ends in April. Yunnan tea has different characters.

[chittychat]

I never rinse green tea. I know it is hand made, but i'm not that worried. Maybe try that.

I do not rinse it because it's hand made. I rinse it after I found that the first pouring of water develops kind of a foam and if I do not discard it the bitterness is more accute.

I might add that from the same source I bought Silver Needle tea which I greatly enjoy and never gave problems. Just placed my 3rd order. After brewing the 2 teas the unfolded leaves look almost the same, the Silver Needles may be slightly larger meaning possibly later picked.

Question is Silver Needle now a white or a green tea? I buy it as the latter.

[Chip]

I never rinse green tea. I know it is hand made, but i'm not that worried. Maybe try that.

I do not rinse it because it's hand made. I rinse it after I found that the first pouring of water develops kind of a foam and if I do not discard it the bitterness is more accute.

I might add that from the same source I bought Silver Needle tea which I greatly enjoy and never gave problems. Just placed my 3rd order. After brewing the 2 teas the unfolded leaves look almost the same, the Silver Needles may be slightly larger meaning possibly later picked.

Question is Silver Needle now a white or a green tea? I buy it as the latter.

There are green tea versions of Silver Needle, but white tea Silver Needle is by far the most commonly seen. The seller would sell it as a green tea if it was. It is more a matter of how it is processed after picking than when it was picked. A good "Green Needle" will have fully intact and tight buds like a good white version. If the buds are starting to open, they are no longer green or silver needle!

Don't think I ever had Yunnan BLC, always had Dong Ting. But just as Silver Needle may come from many regions and may be of hi or low grade, so it is with BLC as well. I have had good and not so good versions.

For this reason and because there are either not so knowledgable or rather inscrupulous sellers and middle men, it can be a difficult tea to purchase. Buyer beware!

One seller Chinese seller recommended pouring the water in an empty vesseel, then pouring the leaf which is unusual, but it worked for me. A good one for me is often lightly floral and veggie, milder then most greens.

[chittychat]

One seller Chinese seller recommended pouring the water in an empty vesseel, then pouring the leaf which is unusual, but it worked for me. A good one for me is often lightly floral and veggie, milder then most greens.

A while ago I finished a session of my BLC and the taste still lingers pleasantly in my mouth. I used this recommendation and first try was very good. In a glass water pot I heated 550 ml of water to a bout 80 C. Take it off the the stove and add about 4 g of tea. Let steep for about 4 min and decant it over a strainer into a thermos. Excellent. I might play yet with a bit more tea and may be 5 min steeping and temp variants. Thank you Chip.

Now when I look at the ratings for Dang Ting BLC in Teaspring there are some which have the same experience as I, re. bitterness.

If one can judge the quality of a tea by the looks of the unfolded infused leaves then this Yunnan BLC should rate very high. One young bud like the other, no broken leaves or dust.

[Chip]

One seller Chinese seller recommended pouring the water in an empty vesseel, then pouring the leaf which is unusual, but it worked for me. A good one for me is often lightly floral and veggie, milder then most greens.

Now when I look at the ratings for Dang Ting BLC in Teaspring there are some which have the same experience as I, re. bitterness.

It was TeaSpring where I heard this. I think I may have even mentioned it in a review there.

And you are welcome!

[jktea]

the authentic Dongting Biluochun from Suzhou wont get bitter at all, since they are all buds and early picking in late March. So no matter how long the steeping time is, it wont get bitter. But the Dongting Biluochun is super hairy. So the water can be cloudy.

Yunnan Bi Luo Chun, actually, we in China, dont regard it as the authentic Bi Luo Chun. It is just the green tea made like Dongting Bi Luo Chun in shape. In the past, all the Yunnan green tea is called Dianqing(Dian is the abbrev of Yunnan, Qing means green tea). Since its soil and tea variety(big leaf) in Yunnan, so generally Yunnan green tea is more bitter than any other green teas in China, but with more infusiability.

For me, I personally prefer Zhejiang green tea, Anhui green tea, Sichuan green tea than other places' green tea, in terms of their tastes and aroma.

[Chip]

Very interesting jktea, thanks for sharing this information.

[Skippyandjif]

Well, whenever I drink bi lo chun, I use about 80-degree-Celsius water and steep it for one to two minutes, and I've had good luck with it so far. I'm inclined to agree that you may have just gotten a not so great batch or something.

Maybe you could try ordering a sample from a different retailer, even a BLC from a different region, and doing a taste comparison?

[debunix]

the authentic Dongting Biluochun from Suzhou wont get bitter at all, since they are all buds and early picking in late March. So no matter how long the steeping time is, it wont get bitter. ..... Since its soil and tea variety(big leaf) in Yunnan, so generally Yunnan green tea is more bitter than any other green teas in China, but with more infusiability.

I find this interesting, because I've recently tried several green teas from Yunnan. A Mao Feng from Yunnan that I got from Norbu was the first green tea that revived my interest in them, after some disappointments with a fancy Dragon's Well and a few more I can't remember in detail, but primarily disliked and/or discarded because of bitterness. I liked the Yunnan Mao Feng in particular because I found it very forgiving and rarely gave me much bitterness. It does have a distinct fruity/camphorous flavor that I associate with a particularly beloved puerh, but not much bitterness as I brewed it. And because I liked it so much, I have since ordered a couple of other green Yunnans--a Jade Pole and a Bao Hong--and found the Jade Pole in particular to have some of this same forgiving quality.

They definitely can be resteeped a bit more than a couple of other delicate green teas I've tried--Bai Mu Dan and Bi Lo Chun, to bring us back round to the topic at hand--but they in my hands they were remarkably less bitter than some of the others I first tried.