Snail Pi Lo Chun

Description

Origin: Yunnan, China
Varietal: Yunkang #10
Altitude: 1400m
Picking: One bud and one leaf

Know your tea: "Pi Lo Chun" literally means "green snail spring" and is one of the top 10 Chinese Green Teas. It has the symbolic 'snow-white hairs' that buds do, as well as a flowery dry leaf aroma. It is so delicate and tender that one kilogram consists of 14,000 to 15,000 tea shoots. Each bud and top leaf is hand-rolled into tight little pearls that resemble snails and we encourage you to watch them unfurl into unbroken leaves as they infuse in the hot water.

Ingredients: 100% pure tea

Tasting Notes: toffee, nutty, meaty, grainy, balanced.

Liqueur Body: Thick, umami, slightly savory. Great as a palate cleanser.

Preparation

We encourage you to experiment with the amount of leaves, amount and temperature of water, and infusion times to reach your preferred strength of tea,  but here's a suggestion for this particular tea: 

Pro Tip: Rinse your tea before the first infusion, to 'awaken' the leaves. You can do this by just submerging the leaves in warm water at the prescribed temperature for each particular tea, and then discarding that water. This will also preheat the vessel and prevent the water temperature from drastically falling during the infusion. 

Most reinfusions require the same or higher temperatures than the first infusion because the leaves will already be moist, but the time for each reinfusion will first reduce till a certain number of reinfusions, and then it will need to be increased till you've maxed out the potential of the leaves.

Yield: At least 25 x 150ml cups/pots