Is bi luo chun considered a type of gunpowder tea? If not, what is it?

-S.

S. Chancellor wrote:
Is bi luo chun considered a type of gunpowder tea? If not, what is it?

-S.

Bi Luo Chun (or Piluochun) is a green tea, it is a different tea to
Gunpowder, for sure. I have seen types that are curled gently rather
than compressed into pellets, which is because guess that for quality
tea it would be impossible to make pellets using just the bud and first
leaf. The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting,
Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?)
in general.

From what I gather (correct me if I am wrong) there are so many subtle
differences in Chinese teas that to categorise something as part of
something else is rather difficult.

--
VL

On 2006-01-22 15:06:55 -0800, "
said:

S. Chancellor wrote:
Is bi luo chun considered a type of gunpowder tea? If not, what is it?

-S.

Bi Luo Chun (or Piluochun) is a green tea, it is a different tea to
Gunpowder, for sure. I have seen types that are curled gently rather
than compressed into pellets, which is because guess that for quality
tea it would be impossible to make pellets using just the bud and first
leaf. The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting,
Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?)
in general.

From what I gather (correct me if I am wrong) there are so many subtle
differences in Chinese teas that to categorise something as part of
something else is rather difficult.


I thought that gunpowder only referred to the way the tea is processed?
As far as I can tell the bi luo chun and this gunpowder looks the
same? Speaking of which,
what is Extra Gunpowder and Special Gunpowder and what is it compared
to just regular ol' gunpowder? Are either of those the same as Pinhead
gunpowder?

-S.

Bi Luo Chun is from JiangSu province. One grade is oblong and snail
shape. Gunpowder tea from ZheJiang province is two grades pinhead and
pearl. The shinier the leaf the fresher which is a desired
characterisic of smaller pinhead while larger pearl is end of season
old leaf. The names for Chinese teas comes from the fog of history.
You can trace each name to a locale and way of processing.

Jim

S. Chancellor wrote:
On 2006-01-22 15:06:55 -0800, "
said:

S. Chancellor wrote:
Is bi luo chun considered a type of gunpowder tea? If not, what is it?

-S.

Bi Luo Chun (or Piluochun) is a green tea, it is a different tea to
Gunpowder, for sure. I have seen types that are curled gently rather
than compressed into pellets, which is because guess that for quality
tea it would be impossible to make pellets using just the bud and first
leaf. The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting,
Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?)
in general.

From what I gather (correct me if I am wrong) there are so many subtle
differences in Chinese teas that to categorise something as part of
something else is rather difficult.


I thought that gunpowder only referred to the way the tea is processed?
As far as I can tell the bi luo chun and this gunpowder looks the
same? Speaking of which,
what is Extra Gunpowder and Special Gunpowder and what is it compared
to just regular ol' gunpowder? Are either of those the same as Pinhead
gunpowder?

-S.

Space Cowboy wrote:

... The names for Chinese teas comes from the fog of history.

The fog of history being particularly amusing for this tea, originally
called (something like)
'Dangerous and Killing Tea' before being renamed Biluo Springtime by
the visiting emperor.

The fog of history being particularly amusing for this tea, originally
called (something like)
'Dangerous and Killing Tea' before being renamed Biluo Springtime by
the visiting emperor.


Actually, the translation should be more like "Startled to Death by the
Fragrance" (xia sha ren xiang or �煞人香). Because the leaves when
heated produced a startling fragrance, the local people gave it this
common name. "Xia sha" is sort of a local dialect thing. But when
Emporer Kang Xi arrived in the area in 1699, he said, the name of the
tea is too unrefined for a tribute tea. So instead he called it
"biluochun" 碧螺春，or Green Snail Spring. Theycall it "green
snail spring" because the leaves are kind of rolled in a spiral like a
snail's shell.

Gunpowder tea from ZheJiang province

Yes I remember now, I think Anhui just sprung up into my head for no
particular reason, as usual.

Speaking of ZheJiang tea. I seem to have three types of gunpowder tea.
Could you maybe explain the difference?

I have from cheapest to most expensive: Special Gunpowder, Extra
Gunpowder, and Pinhead Gunpowder. They ranged in price from 4 dollars
a pound to 5.50 a pound.

I'm very curious as to what exactly the difference is.

And if you know also, what is the difference between Sencha and Hojicha?

I'm having trouble finding these data.

-S.


On 2006-01-23 08:18:42 -0800, "Space Cowboy" said:

Bi Luo Chun is from JiangSu province. One grade is oblong and snail
shape. Gunpowder tea from ZheJiang province is two grades pinhead and
pearl. The shinier the leaf the fresher which is a desired
characterisic of smaller pinhead while larger pearl is end of season
old leaf. The names for Chinese teas comes from the fog of history.
You can trace each name to a locale and way of processing.

Jim

S. Chancellor wrote:
On 2006-01-22 15:06:55 -0800, "
said:

S. Chancellor wrote:
Is bi luo chun considered a type of gunpowder tea? If not, what is it?

-S.

Bi Luo Chun (or Piluochun) is a green tea, it is a different tea to
Gunpowder, for sure. I have seen types that are curled gently rather
than compressed into pellets, which is because guess that for quality
tea it would be impossible to make pellets using just the bud and first
leaf. The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting,
Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?)
in general.

From what I gather (correct me if I am wrong) there are so many subtle
differences in Chinese teas that to categorise something as part of
something else is rather difficult.


I thought that gunpowder only referred to the way the tea is processed?
As far as I can tell the bi luo chun and this gunpowder looks the
same? Speaking of which,
what is Extra Gunpowder and Special Gunpowder and what is it compared
to just regular ol' gunpowder? Are either of those the same as Pinhead
gunpowder?

-S.

On 2006-01-22 15:06:55 -0800, "
said:

The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting,
Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?)
in general.

I think you're correct about this. The tea from gunpowder is brownish
gray, all three types I've bought and tried. This BI Luo Chun. (Which
looks mostly like gunpowder to me.) is very tasty in comparison.
However it was 15 dollars a pound, on many of the websites I have
looked at for it, it is much over 30 dollars a pound. Do you know
anywhere that sells the rolled pellets like I have now for a decent
price? It seems most online shops are more expensive than the local
asian market. =/ (Unfortunately I can't read chinese, so I didn't know
I was buying Bi Luo Chun, purely accidental... Maybe that's the best
way to try new teas, pick randomly?

-S.

"S. Chancellor" wrote in message
news:2006012319284575249-dnewsgr@mephitkicksassorg...
On 2006-01-22 15:06:55 -0800, "
said:

The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting,
Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?)
in general.

I think you're correct about this. The tea from gunpowder is brownish
gray, all three types I've bought and tried. This BI Luo Chun. (Which
looks mostly like gunpowder to me.) is very tasty in comparison. However
it was 15 dollars a pound, on many of the websites I have looked at for
it, it is much over 30 dollars a pound. Do you know anywhere that sells
the rolled pellets like I have now for a decent price? It seems most
online shops are more expensive than the local asian market. =/
(Unfortunately I can't read chinese, so I didn't know I was buying Bi Luo
Chun, purely accidental... Maybe that's the best way to try new teas, pick
randomly?

-S.


Part of the problem with Pilochun is that it is one of the famous teas of
China, (like Lung Jing etc.) and thus is in high demand, thus the price gets
driven up. There has been some rumor of people passing off a tea that is
not pilochun as pilochun at various times, and there was a discussion on
here ( I think?) about that a while back. $15 a pound is not expensive,
really it's not, not for that tea . Heck, not for any tea... Er...Danny can
you comment on grades of Pilochun and their relative prices that one might
expect? S., do a search in this group for pilochun (or Bi lo Chun) and see
what comes up. It seems there is more discussion of the greens in the spring
since that's when they are coming available fresh.
When you're unsure about whether you want to spend x amount of money on a
tea, try to get a sample first (most tea sites will sell samples) and that
will give you a better idea before you buy a lot. But do realize that every
new tea you get (and even new batches of a type of tea you've had before)
will more than likely be subtly different from each other. Whole leaf tea
isn't as standardized in taste as a black blended tea (like Tetley's for
instance) and can vary quite a bit. It's a great deal of the lure of tea for
me...to try a new type and discover it's taste. Wonderful.

Melinda

On 2006-01-23 23:48:39 -0800, "Melinda" said:

Part of the problem with Pilochun is that it is one of the famous teas
of China, (like Lung Jing etc.) and thus is in high demand, thus the
price gets driven up. There has been some rumor of people passing off
a tea that is not pilochun as pilochun at various times, and there was
a discussion on here ( I think?) about that a while back. $15 a pound
is not expensive, really it's not, not for that tea . Heck, not for any
tea... Er...Danny can you comment on grades of Pilochun and their
relative prices that one might expect? S., do a search in this group
for pilochun (or Bi lo Chun) and see what comes up. It seems there is
more discussion of the greens in the spring since that's when they are
coming available fresh.
When you're unsure about whether you want to spend x amount of money on
a tea, try to get a sample first (most tea sites will sell samples) and
that will give you a better idea before you buy a lot. But do realize
that every new tea you get (and even new batches of a type of tea
you've had before) will more than likely be subtly different from each
other. Whole leaf tea isn't as standardized in taste as a black blended
tea (like Tetley's for instance) and can vary quite a bit. It's a great
deal of the lure of tea for me...to try a new type and discover it's
taste. Wonderful.

Melinda

Fifteen dollars a pound wasn't really the problem, but that all the Bi
Luo Chun (or Pi Lo Chun) I've found from online vendors is around
between 30-60 dollars a pound. I'm not sure what the difference is.
I'm a newb to tea, so I can't really justify the expense for a tea I
can't taste the difference of. It seems most online vendors only claim
to sell super top grade tea.

Also, I fully agree about the differences in taste in green tea. I
think it's quite interesting to try them all. Albeit, I am ending up
purchasing more different kinds of tea faster than I can drink them!

-S.

A good Biluochun (when you can get it) is truely a remarkable tea. To
my eyes it does not look like gunpowder much. Biluochun is not a green
tea type, but a particular tea. Gunpowder is a category of tea. Real
Biluochun certainly comes from Jiangsu, but there are quite poor
"copies" made at least in Taiwan and Yunnan. Once I bought erraneously
Taiwanese Biluochun from some Austrian tea vendor and that was less
than mediocre if compared the really fantastic genuine Biluochun that I
found in one tea shop in St.-Petersburg (this one has nothing to do
with Florida!). In better Chinese tea shops they offer often some 2-5
grades of Biluochun depending on season. The best ones are kept safe
behind the counter in some kind of refridgerators. The price tag may
have 3-4 digits (for one jin... I guess). Last October in Beijing I
bought some middle price Biluochun which is fairly good, but the leaves
are about 30% larger in size that the more expensive ones. Anyway...
real Jiangsu Biluochun is a classic and I recommend to try it.

S. Chancellor writes:

[...Bi Luo Chun prices...]
Fifteen dollars a pound wasn't really the problem, but that all the Bi
Luo Chun (or Pi Lo Chun) I've found from online vendors is around
between 30-60 dollars a pound. I'm not sure what the difference
is. I'm a newb to tea, so I can't really justify the expense for a
tea I can't taste the difference of.

Precisely.

It seems most online vendors
only claim to sell super top grade tea.

Also, I fully agree about the differences in taste in green tea. I
think it's quite interesting to try them all. Albeit, I am ending up
purchasing more different kinds of tea faster than I can drink them!

I completely understand the urge to get more and more, but please
understand that green tea decays pretty rapidly, especially once you
break the seal on a (hopefully tightly sealed) package. What matters
is how much pleasure you expect to get from drinking all the tea
you've bought by the time you're done with it; that's the bang you
justify the bucks against.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Fifteen dollars a pound wasn't really the problem, but that all the
Bi
Luo Chun (or Pi Lo Chun) I've found from online vendors is around
between 30-60 dollars a pound. I'm not sure what the difference
is. I'm a newb to tea, so I can't really justify the expense for a
tea I can't taste the difference of.

Ofcourse! I guess you should buy tea you can understand, this is very
wise! If vendors state that you are buying Yunnan or Fuding (area of
Fujian) Piluochun 'generic' tea then there aren't really any problems;
you know what you are buying. I've seen real Jiangsu Piluochun from
Teaspring that is certified Dong Ting (with some sort of QC
certificate) and thats $28.70/100g, pricey indeed!

It seems most online vendors
only claim to sell super top grade tea.
Well I am not sure we can go that far! Have you seen the 'generic'
Yunnan loose green teas at Yunnan Sourcing LLC, they have a 'generic'
Pilouchun there.

I totally agree with Lew, I once had that attitude to get lots of
things and try them, its totally natural (perhaps Western ideology?).
Only time can cure...

S. Chancellor wrote:
And if you know also, what is the difference between Sencha and Hojicha?

Sencha is a good Japanese green tea, higher in quality than Bancha (an
everyday-drinking green tea in Japan).

Houjicha is Bancha that's been pan-roasted (wok-roasted?) to a brown
color. I find it has an almost Oolong-like flavor -- I like it.

And you didn't ask, but Kukicha is mostly twigs and stems from the tea
plant. Haven't tried it yet, me. And Genmaicha is Bancha with toasted
rice in it.

stePH
np: King Crimson, "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum"