KyaraZen

“古人说: 要积了三辈子的阴德，才能闻得奇楠香, 要八辈子修来的福气，才可品或饮用奇楠香。”

The Future of Oud Oils – Fractionated Sinensis CO2

by

Recently on a business trip i had 6 hours to spare so I decided to grab a bullet train ticket to the city of Dongguan, Guangzhou to visit a distillation plant/factory which I thought was potentially one of the most promising oud oil producers to have appeared in the recent years. Bullet Trains in China are just so convenient, comfortable and fast! There could be hundreds and hundreds of oud distillers.. but what made Yuzhi Agarwood so special that it was worth a detour for me? Because of many reasons! They do CO2 extraction, that is they pull out everything from raw materials, leaving behind fibrous materials, producing a thick brown paste that has swirls of white in it. Essentially a huge pot of oil/oleoresin/resin (brown) interspearsed with streaks of natural "waxes" found in wood fibres. something like smucker's peanut butter with jelly. From this Extract, they put it through a high tech fractionation process which separates the waxes and some resins from the ... [Read More...]

The KZ TEA Wheel

by

  The Tea Wheel. The KZ Tea Wheel was developed from scratch rather than having had ripped it off other wine and beverage type of wheels. It too about a year’s conceptualization and testing, and by no means is an “absolute” wheel as everyone’s from different ethnicities, different olfactory and taste sensitivity/taste preferences etc. You can actually use this tea wheel as a base and adjust it if need be. Why the need for a Tea Wheel? That is because tea is always constantly evolving, the processing methods, cultivars, weather, farming methods, storage, brewing, has always been changing, and these matters are often battered by the issue of margins and money. To this end, the identities and original flavours of tea is now increasingly lost, and there must be a new way to start describing tea flavours and fragrances in words, rather than using terms like “Tieguanyin taste, Long Jing taste etc”. Even Wuyi famous tea master, whom had passed on a few years ago, Zhang Tian Fu ... [Read More...]

Wuyi Cliff Tea Part 1

by

This is Part 1 of a series on Wuyi Cliff Tea. Read about Wuyi Cliff Tea Part 2 - Complexities and Wuyi Cliff Tea Part 3 - A Tea Maker that cannot be helped.   There are 36 peaks at the Wuyi Mountains, and 99 valleys are formed by these ... [Read More...]

KZ ventures into oils

by

We at the KZ team had been deliberating this for a very very long time. Every time we meet a trader, a merchant, a supplier, a distiller, a farmer, we see a diverse range of wares to which we are incredibly selective and meticulous. Part to why ... [Read More...]

  • 不知道为什么，这个阶段这么喜欢这个题材 《长永贞正》。又刻了一枚大的。阴刻白文，代表坤卦。#篆刻 #calligraphy #书法
  • As you can see.. my level of “boredom” when i take a breather from incense making，seal carving and what not.. i was scrolling through instagram and i swiped past a calligrapher whom did a rice paper lantern and i was like.. hey.... i can make this too!! rummaged up some lamp parts.. wood strips... rice paper... so one hour later.. presenting to you a “artisanal rice paper lamp” 🤪 #篆刻 #sealcarving #lamp #lantern #calligraphy #takkiraja
  • Forgot to add the 70% Tanzania when checking out on the website.. chocolates made in Singapore. #fossachocolates #chocolates
  • I don’t have many Jinpachi pots, but each acquisition is well cherished and loved. Each piece is mature in form, material, utility, handling and balance. not only visually excellent but in tea, the performance is beyond excellent. Often found in higher price brackets, I happy to have spied these pieces on artisticnippon and grabbed them without a blink of an eye. In my regard, amongst the top teapot makers in Japan.. you have to own one to appreciate it to a higher degree. #tea #teapot #茶 @artistic_nippon
  • Cow Dung Incense... i felt it was amusing to read the line “南有沉香，北有牛粪 ”....i.e there’s agarwood in the south.. but cow dung in the north. The scent is herbal, tinge of earthiness, no foulness nor off notes. #incense #kodo #線香 #香道
  • Luscious green oil kyara from Shoyeido Japan. really nice unheated scent. #kyara #kynam #aloeswood #kodo #奇楠 #沉香