July 14, 2026. Tea. Black tea
This tea looks almost too orderly dry. Each leaf is rolled into a little curl, gold and brown together, and the pile has the loose, springy look of something that will change completely once water reaches it. It does.
Bi Luo Chun is better known as a green tea style, so seeing the name on a Fengqing black tea is part of the fun. Here it describes the tight, curled leaf shape. The tea still brews like a black tea, but the dry leaf gives it a very different first impression from the long, straight strands of many Yunnan blacks.
The curls slowly let go. A small scoop becomes a bowl of long brown leaves, glossy from the brew and much larger than the dry pile suggested. Watching that change is half the point of making this one in a gaiwan rather than hiding the leaves in an infuser.
I get a soft, sweet black tea with a round texture and none of the sharp edge that can show up in a rushed brew. The gold tips give the leaf a honeyed look, and the cup follows through with a gentle sweetness. It is the kind of tea I reach for when I want a black tea that feels calm rather than forceful.
Start with about 5g in a gaiwan and water just under boiling. Give the first infusion a little extra time so the curled leaves can open, then keep the following steeps shorter. The leaf has room to keep giving after the first cup.
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