2010 Yiwu Old Tea Caravan Trail Teacake 易武老街青餅 - Sunsing tea

Named after the famous ancient Tea Trail Road, which legendary Paths, used to be set like a spidernet through the highlands of Yunnan, spreading out to the borders of southeastasia and Tibet, was the hub for trading over centuries. 

This Teacake uses spring plucked gushu (aged wild tree) material, traditionally stone pressed with delicate quince, roots, spices and honey like sweetness, woods aromatic, slight peppery, with some acidity similar to berries and a round, calming mellow body.

Sichuan and Yunnan are believed to be the first tea-producing regions in the world. The first record of tea cultivation in the world suggested that tea was cultivated on Sichuan's Mount Mengding (蒙顶山) between Chengdu and Ya‘an  earlier than 65 BC. Ya'an has been an important hub of tea trading till the 20th century. Besides tea, silk products from Chengdu, notably Shujin (蜀锦), was also traded through this road.

From around a thousand years ago, the Tea Horse Road was a trade link from Yunnan to Bengal via Myanmar; to Tbite; and to Central China via Sichuan Province. In addition to tea, the mule caravans carried salt. Both people and horses carried heavy loads, the tea porters sometimes carrying over 60–90 kg (132-198 lb.), which was often more than their own body weight in tea. The porters carried metal-tipped staffs, both for balance while walking and to help support the load while they rested, so they didn't need to lay the bales down.

It is believed that it was through this trading network that tea first spread across China and Asia from its origins in Puˋer county, near Simao Prefecture in Yunannounced.

The route earned the name Tea-Horse Road because of the common trade of Tibetan ponies for Chinese tea, a practice dating back at least to the song dynasty, when the sturdy horses were important for China to fight warring nomads in the north.