Biluochun, whose name translates literally to “Green Snail Spring,” is one of China’s ten most celebrated teas, yet it remains a quiet miracle even to many seasoned drinkers. Produced only in a micro-zone where the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang curl around the eastern edge of Lake Tai (Taihu), this tea carries the aroma of peach blossoms, the sweetness of loquats, and the mineral breath of limestone hills—all within a leaf so tiny it takes 60,000 buds to make 500 g. To understand Biluochun is to listen to a spring whisper that has been murmured for more than a thousand years.
Historical records first mention the tea during the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) under the humbler name “Xia Sha Ren Xiang” (“Scary Fragrance”), so potent that a courtesan is said to have dropped her fan at its perfume. The Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661-1722) renamed it Biluochun on a southern inspection tour, enchanted by the spiral shape that resembled a snail shell and by the fact that it was picked on the vernal equinox. Since then, every spring, Suzhou’s Dongting Mountain has repeated the same ritual: pluck at dawn, fire before noon, rest overnight, then send the tea on canal boats to the imperial city.
True Biluochun comes only from two tiny peninsulas—Dongshan (East Mountain) and Xishan (West Mountain)—that poke into Lake Tai like the pincers of a jade crab. The lake’s water regulates temperature, creating a mist that filters sunlight into a soft, shifting kaleidoscope. Around the tea gardens, fruit growers plant peach, plum, apricot, and loquat trees; their roots intermingle with the tea bushes, lending the leaf a nectarous note impossible to replicate elsewhere. In April, when the lake breathes cool air onto the land, the buds stay small, only one cm long, shaped like a sparrow’s tongue and downier than duckling fluff.
The picking window is cruelly short: bud and the adjacent unfolding leaf must be harvested before the Qingming festival, usually between March 20 and April 5. Experienced pickers use a “three pinch” rule—pinch the bud, pinch the stem, pinch again to drop the leaf into a bamboo basket—never touching the leaf with their palms, lest the warmth start premature oxidation. A full basket weighs no more than 250 g, ensuring the buds remain unbruised. Within two hours, the baskets are carried down granite steps to the village square, where the kill-green woks wait, charcoal glowing like cat’s eyes.
Biluochun is the only famous Chinese green tea that is pan-fired while still slightly withered. The fresh leaves are spread on bamboo trays for 30–40 minutes, losing about 10 % moisture and absorbing the fragrance of the surrounding blossoms. Then they are tossed onto a wok heated to 180 °C. A master maker uses only his bare hands, rubbing the leaves along the sloping wall in a clockwise spiral, pressing just hard enough to rupture marginal cells and release grassy volatiles, yet gentle enough to keep the bud intact. After three minutes, the temperature drops to 120 °C; the spiral motion continues for another ten, until the leaf is 60 % dry and curled like a snail. A final “ti hao” (lifting the down) stage at 80 °C polishes the white pekoe into silvery threads. The entire process takes 35 minutes, during which the maker’s hands never leave the tea, a tactile dialogue between flesh and leaf that has no mechanical equivalent.
The finished tea is an exercise in miniature aesthetics: each curl is 6–7 mm long, 3 mm wide, and weighs 0.03 g. Dry, it smells like walking through a spring orchard at dusk—peach, loquat, and something aquatic, almost ozonic. Once brewed, the leaf unfurls in slow motion, sinking vertically like green snowflakes. The liquor is the color of morning light on jade, bright yet soft, with a viscosity that clings to the cup wall in faint “tea legs.”
To brew Biluochun properly, one must respect its fragility. Use a tall, thin glass of 200 ml capacity; the height allows the leaf to dance, the transparency to witness the performance. Water should be 75 °C—cooler than most greens—because the bud is so tender that hotter water will cook it,