An outstanding green tea and the best example of this type of tea, Bi Luo Chun, that I've sampled yet.

Dry leaf is very dusty, consisting of tender-looking curls of leaf tips, and is beautifully fragrant, suggestive of sweetness, with a strong nutty quality and a hint of smokiness.

Upon brewing, I found this tea to be full-bodied and sweet, with an eminently pleasing aroma that seemed very persistent. There's a faint hint of smokiness, but the dominant character of the cup is nutty and vegetal.

Made three infusions with ease, when brewed as recommended, starting with a 1 minute infusion. Each was mild but still full-bodied and pleasantly aromatic. Later infusions became more tangy and herbaceous, and slightly less sweet and nutty, but were more or less similar in character. If I steeped the first cup longer, I was only able to brew 2 cups, and I felt that some of the tea's complexity was lost. I recommend sticking with TeaVivre's brewing recommendations. I also recommend being careful about brewing temperature, I didn't botch this tea in any brewing, but I other Bi Luo Chun I've found can be very sensitive to the temperature being too high. Little leaf is necessary for a flavorful cup.

I'm certainly no connoisseur when it comes to this type of tea; I've only sampled two other examples. But this is definitely not only the best, but far ahead of the other two examples I had, one of which was from Teavana (and has since been discontinued) and one of which was an inexpensive brand (Starway importers) purchased from an Asian market. This one was considerably cheaper than Teavana's batch, but I thought it was better.

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