Bi Luo Chun Green Tea

A celebrated Chinese heritage green tea with distinctive curled leaves and a smooth, layered cup of gentle marine notes, fresh vegetation, and a subtle grape-like sweetness.

The Experience

Bi Luo Chun is one of China’s historically celebrated green teas, immediately recognizable for the tightly curled shape that inspired its name. Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春) is commonly translated as “Green Snail Spring”—green for the leaf, snail for its delicate spiral form, and spring for the season traditionally associated with this style of tea.

Our Bi Luo Chun comes from Fujian Province, China, and offers a fascinating alternative to the grassy character many customers associate with green tea. The medium-bodied cup is silky and gently vegetal, with subtle seaweed-like notes followed by an intriguing grape undertone and soft natural sweetness.

This is a tea worth slowing down for. With no added flavors or botanicals, everything you experience comes from the tea leaf itself.

Tasting Notes

Top: Fresh greens • Gentle marine notes
Mid: Silky vegetation • Seaweed
Finish: Grape • Subtle sweetness • Clean
Body: Medium

Why You’ll Love It

• A traditional Chinese heritage green-tea style
• Distinctive hand-crafted-looking spiral leaf
• More body than many delicate green teas
• Silky rather than sharply grassy
• Intriguing grape-like undertones
• No added flavors, fruit, flowers, or botanicals
• An excellent tea for exploring the diversity of Chinese green tea
• Beautiful leaves that unfurl dramatically during steeping

Tea, Origin & Ingredients

Tea Type: Green Tea
Style: Bi Luo Chun
Origin: Fujian Province, China
Ingredients: Green tea
Added Flavoring: None
Caffeine: Caffeinated
Body: Medium
Classification: Purist / Chinese Heritage Tea

How to Brew

Bi Luo Chun rewards gentle brewing. Use approximately 1 heaping teaspoon per 8 oz / 237 ml of water at 175–185°F / 80–85°C and steep for approximately 2–3 minutes.

We recommend beginning around 2 minutes and adjusting subsequent infusions to your preference. Avoid boiling water, which can overwhelm the tea's subtler sweetness and draw excessive bitterness from the leaf. For the clearest expression of the tea, enjoy it without milk or sweetener.

Perfect For

Bi Luo Chun is particularly suited to purist tea drinkers, customers exploring Chinese tea, green-tea drinkers ready to move beyond flavored blends, and anyone interested in experiencing how dramatically traditional green teas can differ from one another. Pair it with steamed or grilled fish, rice dishes, dumplings, vegetables, tofu, mild seafood, fresh fruit, or lightly sweetened pastries.

What Does “Bi Luo Chun” Mean?

The name itself teaches you something about the tea.

• Bi 碧 → jade or green
  
• Luo 螺 → snail or spiral
  
• Chun 春 → spring

Together, Bi Luo Chun is generally translated as “Green Snail Spring.” Look closely at the dry leaf and the reason becomes apparent. Rather than broad, flat leaves, the tea is worked into small curled and spiral-like shapes. Once hot water is introduced, those compact leaves gradually open—making Bi Luo Chun a particularly enjoyable tea to brew in glassware where you can watch the transformation.

One Important Note About Origin

The supplied information for this particular tea identifies its origin as Fujian Province, China. The historically famous and geographically associated Bi Luo Chun, however, is traditionally linked with the Dongting Mountains around Lake Tai in Jiangsu Province. Today, teas made in the Bi Luo Chun style are produced in other Chinese tea-growing regions as well.

Why Doesn't It Taste Like a Typical Green Tea?

There really isn't one “green tea flavor.” Green tea can range from fresh grass and steamed vegetables to chestnut, flowers, marine notes, fruit, herbs, and natural sweetness, depending on cultivar, terroir, harvest, and processing.

Bi Luo Chun demonstrates that beautifully. It has a silky seaweed-like character with grape undertones. Those flavors aren't added—the ingredient is simply green tea. That's one of the most rewarding things about exploring purist teas: the leaf itself can create flavors that sound like an ingredient list.

Try the Leaves More Than Once

Quality whole-leaf green teas can often reveal different characteristics over successive infusions. After your first cup, don't automatically discard the leaves. Try steeping them again with fresh water, adjusting your time slightly as needed.

You may find the first infusion emphasizes aroma and fresh green character, while subsequent cups reveal more of the tea's soft sweetness and underlying vegetal notes. There is no requirement to find a particular flavor. Pay attention to what you notice—that is how a tea palate develops.

Packaging: Our loose teas are sold by the ounce and packaged in food-grade resealable bags.

Explore Chinese Green Tea

Bi Luo Chun Green Tea (This Tea)
Silky • Marine • Grape
→ Best for: discovering an unusual Chinese green tea with curled leaves and naturally complex flavor

Dragonwell Green Tea
Chestnut • Vegetal • Smooth
→ Try next if: you want to explore one of China's other great green-tea traditions with a more nutty, pan-fired character

Zhen Mei Green Tea
Vegetal • Toasted • Classic
→ Try next if: you're looking for an approachable everyday Chinese green tea