I am not into green teas but still diligently buying them and trying to develop a liking. The greens are supposedly really dependent on being fresh so here it comes a new harvest, right off the fields, Spring Snail Bi Luo Chun.
It is a very good looking, fragrant tea. it is rolled into nice little heavy snails, making it easy to put too much into a teapot if you go by volume vs. weight. Both dry and wet leaves smell of umami, grass and spices.
The taste is the same. I started with 15 secs (5g/100g) and it was to short, resulting in the taste being mostly umami a-la sencha. Then I increased the time to 25-so seconds and hit the right spot, bringing in the complexity. The tea gave off 4 solid steeps.
This is the tea that is hard to grade: the taste was good but not great, while the aroma and appearance are top notch.
Flavors: Floral, Grass, Spices, Umami