For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas from three companies: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. The vendors were Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups. I received my last shipment of tea on Thursday and did the Bi Luo Chun comparison session over the weekend.
After my great experience with Teavivre’s Ming Qian Bi Luo Chun last year, it was inevitable that it would end up in this comparison. It’s a relatively pricy tea, but the least expensive of the three BLC in this set and also quite affordable for a Mingqian harvest.
Tea bush: Small-leaf tea bush species
Location: West Dongting Mountain, Wuzhong District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu
Picking date: March 15, 2024
Price/g: US$0.78
For the session, I steeped 2.4 g of all three teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.
The dry aroma is of green beans, green pepper, florals, butter, and nuts. The first steep is fuzzy and viscous, with notes of baby green beans, green pepper, cucumber, kale, florals, butter, chestnuts, and faint pear. Subsequent steeps reveal more fresh spring veggies, including beans, green pepper, and asparagus, plus nuts, orchid florals, pear, butter, and a bit of citrus. The tea is surprisingly sweet in spite of all the veggies. The final steeps are nutty, grassy, mineral, vegetal, and still fairly sweet, with hints of florals and fruit here and there.
Of the three Bi Luo Chun, this one is the most vegetal, with the fewest floral or fruity hints. Either they were less prominent than in the spring 2023 version, or the other teas made me notice them less. Either way, I enjoyed the springlike, beany, nutty character of this tea and I think it fared pretty well against its more expensive competitors.
Flavors: Asparagus, Butter, Chestnut, Citrus, Cucumber, Floral, Grass, Green Beans, Green Pepper, Kale, Mineral, Nutty, Orchid, Pear, Sweet, Vegetal
