Gudaye (古大爷) is an independent Yunnan Pu-erh tea brand built around source-direct old-tree material. Founded by tea maker Lao Tian, trademarked in 2017 (legal entity: Yunnan Gudaye Tea Co., Ltd.), the brand covers four categories — old-tree raw Pu-erh, old-tree ripe Pu-erh, old-tree red tea, and old-tree white tea — under one principle: old-tree tea, hand-picked.
The name is not a person. There is no "Old Mr. Gu". Gudaye is what Yunnan tea farmers actually called founder Lao Tian — daye (大爷) being a mountain honorific for a buyer who paid in cash and only chose old (gu, 古) trees. Lao Tian started visiting the mountains in 2014, kept paying cash, kept refusing plantation material; a nickname became a registered trademark in 2017. The word also names a posture: choosing to slow down inside a fast time.
The brand works between two places. From March to May each spring, Lao Tian stays deep in Yunnan, joining harvest and primary processing in person, avoiding generic blending, leaving room for years of aging. Hangzhou is the base for channels, sales, and daily communication, run by co-founder Xiao Shi.
Against the grain of industrial fast-moving tea, Gudaye chooses the slow path — light kill-green at 60–85°C for raw Pu-erh; traditional pile fermentation plus 3–5 years of natural aging for ripe Pu-erh; old-method bamboo-basket fermentation for red tea (around 200 kg a year); full shade withering of at least four days for white tea. This tea isn't for everyone. If you want immediate high aroma or standardized cups, it may disappoint. If you'd rather watch a tea change over years and let drinking become a long companion, it tends to feel right.
Gudaye does not aim to make commodity tea — only tea the maker himself would drink every day. For partnerships, press, wholesale, or tea questions, write to tea@gudaye.cc.
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Four Lines, Four Answers
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01 · Main slogan
Gudaye — old-tree tea, hand-picked.
What I do — only old-tree tea, no plantation, no blends.
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02 · Sub slogan
Real old trees. One leaf at a time.
How I do it — I climb the mountains myself.
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03 · Lifestyle line
Slower. Better tea.
What I say to you — give pace back to your life.
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04 · Brand belief
Good tea takes its time.
Why I do it — the spiritual root of the brand.