Speaking of ZheJiang tea. I seem to have three types of gunpowder tea.
Could you maybe explain the difference?

I have from cheapest to most expensive: Special Gunpowder, Extra
Gunpowder, and Pinhead Gunpowder. They ranged in price from 4 dollars
a pound to 5.50 a pound.

I'm very curious as to what exactly the difference is.

And if you know also, what is the difference between Sencha and Hojicha?

I'm having trouble finding these data.

-S.


On 2006-01-23 08:18:42 -0800, "Space Cowboy" > said:

> Bi Luo Chun is from JiangSu province. One grade is oblong and snail
> shape. Gunpowder tea from ZheJiang province is two grades pinhead and
> pearl. The shinier the leaf the fresher which is a desired
> characterisic of smaller pinhead while larger pearl is end of season
> old leaf. The names for Chinese teas comes from the fog of history.
> You can trace each name to a locale and way of processing.
>
> Jim
>
> S. Chancellor wrote:
>> On 2006-01-22 15:06:55 -0800, "
>> > said:
>>
>>> S. Chancellor wrote:
>>>> Is bi luo chun considered a type of gunpowder tea? If not, what is it?
>>>>
>>>> -S.
>>>
>>> Bi Luo Chun (or Piluochun) is a green tea, it is a different tea to
>>> Gunpowder, for sure. I have seen types that are curled gently rather
>>> than compressed into pellets, which is because guess that for quality
>>> tea it would be impossible to make pellets using just the bud and first
>>> leaf. The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting,
>>> Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?)
>>> in general.
>>
>>> From what I gather (correct me if I am wrong) there are so many subtle
>>> differences in Chinese teas that to categorise something as part of
>>> something else is rather difficult.
>>
>>
>> I thought that gunpowder only referred to the way the tea is processed?
>> As far as I can tell the bi luo chun and this gunpowder looks the
>> same? Speaking of which,
>> what is Extra Gunpowder and Special Gunpowder and what is it compared
>> to just regular ol' gunpowder? Are either of those the same as Pinhead
>> gunpowder?
>>
>> -S.