“Spring wind greens the south again, Biluochun is beautifully winding,” it's the time of year when everyone talks about Biluochun.
We talk about the fragrant Tea that permeates the city, and we also talk about its staggering price.
Why is Dongting Biluochun so expensive?
What's the reason for its high cost?
It's expensive due to its rarity, and also because of the hands involved.
Dongting Biluochun, from picking to stir-frying, is done entirely by hand, taking time, effort, and care, inevitably making it costly.
The first step to a cup of Jiangnan flavor is picking.
How do the tea farmers on Dongting East and West Hills pick tea?
When 5% of the tea shoots in the tea garden reach the initial stage of one bud and one leaf, they can be picked according to standards.
First Picking
The first batch of picking requires thoroughness; only when the first batch is thoroughly picked will the subsequent growth of new tea shoots be uniform in length.
Otherwise, the newly sprouted shoots vary in size and length, which the farmers call “chaos.” “Chaos on the tree makes it hard to pick, and chaos after picking makes it hard to sort,” affecting quality.
Leaving Leaves When Picking
Subsequent pickings require leaving leaves, allowing the tea plant to retain some new leaves to maintain photosynthesis, ensuring tea quality, and the left leaves have lateral buds in their axils, increasing the number of buds for the next round, thus sustaining production increases.
Pick Early
Tea farmers must pick early, generally heading up the mountain at dawn and finishing around 11 am.
Ancient people said, “It must be done early in the morning, not under the sun. In the morning, the night dew has not yet dried, and the tea shoots are moist. Under the sun, they are affected by solar heat.”
The water content in the tea changes with time, and in the morning, the shoots are plump and full of water, being of the best quality.
After the sun comes out, the tea shoots, exposed to sunlight, experience rising temperatures, and the water content in the shoots changes, affecting quality.
Picking Techniques, Avoid Pinching
When picking, one should not use fingernails to pinch, as this would turn the tea stem red; nor should one hold it in the hand, as it would wilt from the heat, affecting taste.
The method used for picking fresh leaves of Dongting Biluochun is called hand-picking.
The palm faces downward, and the thumb and index finger grasp the tender stem above the fish leaf, gently lifting upward to pick the shoot.
Dongting Biluochun is delicate, with tens of thousands of shoots in one pound of tea, so picking is both a test of physical strength and patience, requiring tens of thousands of repetitions, which is no easy task.
An experienced picker can only pick about one pound of green tea in half a day.
Sorting Requirements
The freshly picked leaves are thinly spread in a clean Bamboo basket indoors, about 2 centimeters thick, and the room must be well-ventilated.
In the afternoon, the fresh leaves are laid out on a table and sorted by hand, removing fish leaves, scales, old leaves, young seeds, hollow shoots, and purple shoots, ensuring uniformity in the length, size, and tenderness of the shoots for grading.
High-grade Dongting Biluochun mainly consists of one bud and one leaf in the initial stage, with the bud longer than the leaf, and the bud and leaf lengths ranging from 1.5 to 3 centimeters.
Middle-grade Dongting Biluochun mainly consists of one bud and two leaves, with the bud and leaf lengths around 3 centimeters.
The sorting of Dongting Biluochun is entirely done by hand, consuming much time, and it usually takes 4 to 5 hours to sort the fresh leaves into “clean blanks” ready for stir-frying. This process also involves the Wilting of the fresh leaves.
After dusk, it's time for stir-frying, which cannot be delayed overnight.
Zhou Shoujuan wrote:
Suzhou is wonderful, with a rare treasure in tea bowls,
The fragrance of fresh leaves startles one,
Fine hairs float in Biluochun, leaving a lingering fragrance on lips and cheeks.
The lingering fragrance of Dongting Biluochun on lips and cheeks cannot be separated from the strict picking requirements, nor can it be without the exquisite stir-frying techniques.
Its stir-frying process follows the principle of “hands never leave the tea, tea never leaves the wok, kneading while stir-frying, stir-frying while kneading, continuous operation, ready upon removal from the wok.”
The stir-frying process consists of four steps: high-temperature blanching, hot kneading and shaping, rolling and revealing fine hairs, and low-temperature Drying, all done by hand without the aid of machinery.
High-Temperature Blanching
Before blanching, the wok is cleaned and polished to prevent sticking, making it easier to stir-fry.
For high-temperature blanching, the wok temperature needs to be between 150°C and 180°C.
The tea farmer observes the color change of the wok, adding about one pound of fresh leaves when the center of the wok begins to show white.
Upon contact with the high-temperature surface of the wok, the fresh leaves emit a slight sound, and the tea farmer repeatedly tosses them with both hands.
Tossing technique is required, emphasizing a combination of tossing and smothering, tossing first and then smothering, more ventilation and less smothering, achieving quick stirring, complete stirring, scattering, thorough blanching, and even blanching. This prevents the leaves from scorching and producing a smothered smell.
After about 3 to 4 minutes, when the tea juice seeps out, the leaves become slightly sticky, soften, lose their bright color, turn dark green, and the fresh smell disappears, replaced by a tea fragrance.
At this point, the tea loses about 20% of its weight and proceeds to the next step.
Hot Kneading and Shaping
The wok temperature is lowered to between 65°C and 75°C, and the tea in the wok is pressed down with the hand, following the wok wall in a spiral motion, allowing the tea ball to roll and flip between the