I’ve always looked at this image with great perplexity. It just takes me to another era. It represents a traditional world that we no longer experience and shows us the hardship of peoples’ life in those days. These potters would walk with 150 to 300 pounds of tea on their back and trudge up to 6 miles per day in the Tea Horse route that went from Sichuan or Yunnan to Tibet. Tea was exchanged for horses. The Tea Horse route of course defined tremendously the tea itself. Large tea varietals were pressed, as they still are today, into bricks in order to facilitate transportation. By the time the tea reached its destination, its characteristics had effectively changed.

We, who love tea, are keeping this tradition alive.

As for this humble chazhuang, we will be soon offering another brand.