"Biluochun" (Green Spring Snail Tea) The special tea from Tai Lake in Suzhou.

Biluochun has the natural quality of flower and fruit fragrance, its fragrance strong, its taste heavy, and its color bright. So it is labeled as "precious tea".

Suzhou 's Biluochun Tea is one of the ten most famous teas in China It is locally known as "Fearful Incense" due to the strong aroma of the brew.

During the Qing dynasty, Emperor Kangxi visited Suzhou and praised the flavor of this aromatic tea. The tea leaves are picked from the Biluo Mountain near Tai Lake , and are collected traditionally in early spring between what is known as "Tomb-sweeping Day" and "Grain Rain Day"! The technique for collecting tea leaves is very complex. Only the tender tip of the leaf is used for the tea making process. This part of the leaf should be no longer than one inch long and shaped like the tip of a spear. One tin of tea uses 60 thousand spears! It's no surprise then, that some of the finest Chinese teas are very expensive. The next step in the process is to repeatedly knead, rub and roll the leaves by hand. The Biluochun tea involves a particularly labor intensive process but the end result are leaves that are compact, tender and wonderfully fresh and aromatic.

STORIES ABOUT BILUO CHUN

It is said that there was a peak called Biluo on the East Hill of the Dongting Mountain. on the side of which grew several tea trees, and every year people came here and pick tea leaves to process them and then drink. One year, in the tea picking season, the local people tea leaves grow luxuriantly. They picked and picked, and there was too much to be held in their crates. So they put the rest in their clothes. As the fresh leaves were heated by the bodies, they spread out strong fragrance which made all the pickers shout, "It is surprisingly fragrant!" After that, nobody used crates to hold tea leaves; instead they all carry them on their chests and named these tealeaves "frightening fragrance"(meaning strong fragrance). Among the pickers was one called Zhu Zhengyuan who was proficient in processing "frightening fragrance". One year, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty came sightseeing in the Tai Lake, and the official Song Luo presented "frightening fragrance" to the Emperor. The Emperor was very pleased with its taste, but disliked its name. So he renamed it as "Biluochun".