Thanks, Jing. The all Chinese commercial brand is YanXiang packed in
Jiangsu with a date of 2005-01(Jan). It was $7/200g cheap compared to
the much more expensive brass wire versions. I wished there was white
tip on the snail's tail(shell+trailing curlycue). I also suspect the
pack date doesn't represent this year's harvest which I understand is
March, April. The snails open almost immediately and I get a nice
infusion after a minute which can handle another infusion. You drop
them into the water. Each one will float and unfurl on the top, some
full single leaf and some two leaves with a stem making a nice bushy
pot. These are the longest, thinnest leaves I've seen. The infusion
is green with a slight golden hue and a light green mellow taste with
no overtones of any other kind. If I drank green tea daily this would
be it.

Jim

SEb wrote:
> There are mainly two types of Bi Luo Chun that are sold on the market
> nowadays, one is the "snail shell" that you bought, another one is
the
> "long thin twisted". In fact, the "long thin twisted" one is more
> traditional, according to the local tea farmers from Jiangsu
province,
> the way they describe the Bi Luo Chun is "brass wires stripe, screwy,
> full of fine hairs, floral fragrance and fruity taste, refreshing."
> The color of the original harvesting area Bi Luo Chun is much whiter
> than those are harvested outside Jiangsu province.
>
> About the "snail shell" one is a sort of new technique green tea, it
is
> pretty close to the gunpowder but much less tight, and it used lower
> grade of leaves. Compare these two Bi Luo Chun, the price of the
"long
> thin twisted" is way higher than the "snail shell". But of course,
the
> "snail shell" also has its own character and it is indeed a good
daily
> tea.
>
> Jing