A weaver in Puer City
In late 2025, Michael Zhan was deep in a sourcing trip across Yunnan’s tea mountains when a local tea farmer mentioned a small silk-weaving workshop on the outskirts of Puer City. The family had been weaving raw silk for generations, but their clientele was dwindling as machine-made fabrics flooded the market. Michael visited their home-workshop, a wooden building filled with hand-built looms. The elderly weaver showed him bolts of silk with a distinct ‘living’ texture — slight irregularities that he felt echoed the character of aged pu’er cakes. He commissioned a small batch of 35cm squares, dyed with mineral oxides to a rust colour reminiscent of the iron-rich earth of Xishuangbanna. Each square is hand-hemmed by the weaver’s daughter, ensuring no fraying even after years of unwrapping and re-wrapping cakes. The set of three was finished in early 2026, just before the spring tea harvest. Michael brought them back personally, carrying a suitcase of silk alongside his tea samples. This wrapping cloth is not just a protective layer; it is a piece of Yunnan’s textile heritage, meant to age gracefully alongside the cakes it dresses.