Bi Luo Chun
Bi Luo Chun (green snail spring) is a famous Chinese green from the Dongting mountains by Lake Tai in Jiangsu, spiral-rolled into tiny downy curls. Its calling card is fragrance: the tea bushes are traditionally interplanted with apricot, plum, and peach trees, and the cup is intensely fruity-floral and delicate, with fine white down on the leaf. It is one of China's ten famous teas and easy to ruin with water that is too hot.
Tiny, tightly spiraled curls covered in fine silvery-white down; abundant down and small, uniform curls signal high grade and early picking. The aroma should be vivid and fruity-floral, the cup sweet and delicate with low astringency. Authentic Dongting (Suzhou) material commands a premium, while much cheaper Bi Luo Chun style tea is grown elsewhere and is fragrant but less refined. Spring picking before Qingming is the prize.
Genuine Bi Luo Chun comes from the East and West Dongting mountains beside Lake Tai in Jiangsu, where the orchard interplanting is part of the protected tradition and contributes to the fruity aroma. The style is now widely imitated across China under the same name, so Dongting origin is a meaningful distinction. Early-spring picking of buds and first leaves defines the top grades.
Western: 75-80°C, 3 g per 200 ml, 1-2 minutes. Glass brewing is traditional and lets you watch the curls sink, and the upside-down method (water first, then leaf) protects the tender down. Gongfu: 80°C, 4 g per 120 ml, 20-30 seconds, 3-4 infusions. Never use boiling water.
Bi Luo Chun style green from outside Dongting runs €15-35 (about $16-38) per 100 g. Authentic early-spring Dongting material reaches €50-120 (about $54-130) per 100 g.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Longjing (Dragon Well)
The other great Jiangnan green, pan-flattened rather than spiral-rolled, nuttier where Bi Luo Chun is fruity.
Mao Feng
A downy, fragrant green with similar delicacy but a slender straight shape rather than tight curls.
Jasmine Dragon Pearls
Rolled and intensely aromatic, but scented with added jasmine rather than naturally fruity from orchard terroir.
Legend says Bi Luo Chun was once called Scary Fragrance for its overwhelming aroma and was renamed to the more elegant green snail spring by the Kangxi Emperor. The orchard interplanting, with tea bushes growing among fruit trees, is often credited with the tea's distinctive fruity-floral character.