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 Way of Collecting (1) – A World View

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Its been a long hiatus, although most people would know that KZ is still around, still very active if you are following me on my Instagram at Instagram.com/aloeswoods in the past year or so, I had picked up quite several other hobbies, new arts.. made some significant career and business progressions (in other unrelated spheres).. and in actual fact.. have reverted to a deep philosophical self that I hadn’t seen a reflection of in the past decade. Almost like hegel’s dialectal pendulum swing.. the oscillations between different polarities will probably be what you will see in my writings this year. One of the most thought provoking subjects that I’ll begin this year’s writings on.. is on the subject on the Way of Collecting. This precedes other writings to come, including a long awaited tea fragrance wheel (for open source sharing so that everyone can advance together and to which I might even try to apply it to help a really hardworking/honest tea friend in her tea business), and ... [Read More...]

2088Tea is now the Official Kyarazen retail page

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Hello all, another sincere apology for the slowness in writing... it's hard to balance doing so many things at one go now. But good news! KyaraZen is now expanding a little, and soon we will have one or two other writers whom will be sharing knowledge on Chinese cultural arts, which may include brush painting, incense, calligraphy, guqin music, etc! But I thought I would write this post because there had been several concerned enquiries about a certain 2088Tea page that had its soft launch a couple of months ago. Friends were wondering if that was really an official page of mine and yes indeed it is! I've now stopped using ETSY but instead will be using my own e-commerce site at 2088Tea.com where we will be sharing with you a myriad of treasures and experiences! For this month, the KZ team had been very hardworking in making incenses and here are some of the examples of the handmade incenses available for the month, all made from selected and excellent raw materials, and if ... [Read More...]

Wuyi Cliff Tea Part 1

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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

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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...]

  • 倚邦小叶种，2019头春猫耳朵。正原产地通一手购得。听故事说产量少，不好采，听听就好，反正都是物以稀为贵才能卖好价。不错喝，茶汤幽香，细腻，久浸不苦，有一丝很特别的玉兰绿梗香，蛮耐泡4克泡了两日十几泡，口舌不苦生津，汤质感薄中带微润。Yibang Cat ears, a small leaved specie from Yibang. Purchased directly from first hand source. Brew is thin, but fragrant, no bitterness, has a unique green gardenia stem note. Steeped for almost twenty steeps over two days. #tea #茶 #beverage #特 #普洱茶 #puertea #rawpuerh
  • Not very old, but very endearing to look at. #teapot
  • An intense weekend, two monkoh sessions on saturday and incense making on sunday. The interest of singaporeans in incense appears to be a strong undercurrent, events were over-subscribed. Many thanks to the Esplanade team for having me over at the Tapestry of Sacred Music for the fifth year running. being pretty much a recluse these days, this is probably one of remaining few events that i’m still willing to do, turning down almost all other request for workshops or programs. Special thanks to the KZ student team that had made the events run flawlessly with success. 这周末在滨海艺术中心举办了闻香/制香活动，连续这活动做了第五年了，从活动的报名率，以及参与活动时的踊跃，可见新加坡人真的还是有爱香的。谢谢滨海艺术的邀请，也谢谢KZ 团队的支持，以让活动完美完成。@chiheisen_horizon @simonhjc @charlesz_huang @cwlee5 @ciel_impression @ichigoetea @kencannata #incense #kodo #香道 #沉香 #線香 #aloeswood #agarwood #esplanade
  • Pickled green chilli. Crunchy, sour, before the spiciness kicks in. A simple example of taste evolution. #chilli #food
  • The Jewel @ Changi Airport. Really pretty place. #jewel #thejewel #changiairport
  • Läderach’s finally in Singapore. I was first introduced to this brand many years ago by colleagues using the swiss synchrotron, and in my subsequent visits to zurich this was a standard item i brought home as gifts. Whilst there are many luxury chocolate brands, Läderach was the most balanced in its taste profile, as the chinese would describe it, 百吃不厌。dismayed to the price in singapore though, it is more than twice the shelf price in switzerland. But slightly understandable as there are overheads and possibly high rentals/freight to cover. Nevertheless, this is a chocolate worth trying if you havent had! #chocolate #laderach #läderach #singapore