Design Origins: Ancient Gate, an Yiwu Aged Raw Pu Erh Tea Cake
Time is not an irrelevant detail in the world of pu erh tea. It is an active force, an invisible ingredient that changes the texture, aroma, and character of tea leaves. In designing Ancient Gate, we wanted to make time visible on the paper that wraps it.
Ancient Gate is an aged raw pu erh cake that links the past to the present. Pressed in Autumn 2025 from Spring 2010 material harvested in Yiwu, it undergone fifteen years of slow transformation. For most of that time, the leaves aged naturally in loose-leaf form, breathing and evolving before finally being pressed into cakes. The result is a tea whose sharper edges have softened, disclosing a deep, steady complexity defined by time.
Visuals Rooted in History
To represent this long arc of aging, we chose the Ancient City of Pingyao in Shanxi Province. Founded in the 14th century and remarkably preserved through the Ming and Qing dynasties, Pingyao stands today as perhaps the most complete surviving Han Chinese walled city. Its walls and gates have witnessed centuries of trade, social change, and economic life.
One of those gates is the heart of our design, towering over the ancient city.
Historically, Pingyao sat along major trade routes between Xi’an and Beijing. In the 19th century, the city played a central role in China’s tea commerce through its piaohao draft banks, which financed the long-distance movement of tea, silver, and goods across the empire.
Since 1997, Pingyao's been on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today, it feels almost paused in time. Courtyard tea houses, timeworn stone walls, and narrow streets invite a slower rhythm. That sense of endurance and continuity is what we wanted to capture on the Ancient Gate wrapper. Just as the city gates once served as a threshold between worlds, this 2010 raw pu erh acts as a sensory portal. Brewing it represents an invitation to step away from acceleration and experience what happens when nothing is rushed.
The Art of Su Yi
The Ancient Gate design continues our collaboration with artist Su Yi, who also created the artwork for Whispering Earth ripe pu erh, Velvet Mountain purple tea, Amber Sunrise black tea, and Moon Garden white tea.
For this piece, Su Yi worked in a traditional water-based painting style rooted in Chinese ink-and-wash techniques (Shui Mo Hua 水墨画). In a stunning bird's-eye view, the depiction of Pingyao’s city gate is solid and softened, monumental and reassuring. Reminding of Ancient Gate's comforting and composed taste.
A Gate Worth Crossing
The gates of Pingyao have stayed anchored in their tradition while the world progressed around them. Ancient Gate offers the same kind of quietness. When you unwrap the paper and brew these leaves, you are stepping through a gate into 2010, where time has already done its work. What remains is depth, balance, and a feeling of peace that cannot be manufactured.