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。”

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 3 – A Tea Maker that cannot be helped

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This is Part 3 of the Wuyi Cliff Tea Series. Read Wuyi Cliff Tea Part 1 and Wuyi Cliff Tea Part 2 - Complexities here. It all started with a canister of tea (containing 75 grams) in a hand-beatened/hammered tin container. Tea leaves enclosed in calligraphy rice paper, sealed with a sticker with an image of a handsome, scholarly chinese man. It was a tea brought back by my student, the price tag was hefty, and always, such prices always hit my "skepticism" nerve, and also made me worry that my student might have been ripped off. Carefully weighing out six grams, into a thin walled Jingdezhen egg shell porcelain gaiwan, fresh water off the boil, intense and hurried steeps, and as the first gust of the tea's aromatics hit everyone........ It was the first Cliff Tea I had ever had, that had an intense siberian musk note, leading on complex florals and heavy mineral notes. For the "qigong" practitioners and others whom had greater sensitivity present at the tasting, the tea was a ... [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...]

  • This incense was made with non sinking grade material, heavy resination, and at 12% charcoal content it still doesnt burn. It makes me wonder how people can claim the use of “sinking” material and not have any charcoal in their incense. I think the weight/10cm stick should be above 0.2g if it is purely made of sinking grade aloeswood. 🤔 #incense
  • Fort Sanctuary had just opened an outlet at the Esplanade, a place not known to have very friendly rentals. They only sell wuyi yancha (cliff tea) and very uniquely do not tell you what cultivar/tea it is, but instead give it their own proprietary number code. This is tea number 528, 24 grams for $36 or so, the most expensive tea they carry at the esplanade. Others are like $19.90/30g. This Tastes like a dhp. Their private tea room at tudor court has more high end teas and will only be open to a minimum spending of $3500. #tea #clifftea #fortsanctuary #茶 #mydurian #esplanade #esplanadesg
  • Kz has always preferred to stay on a low profile on local events that are conducted, but this post is to show gratitude to my team for their dedication and support allowing us to successfully complete a 4 session, 85 pax incense making workshop. And a big thankyou to the Esplanade for having Kyarazen conduct incense related workshop/lectures for the fourth year running at the sacred music festival. #incense #esplanade #mydurian
  • 乏味。惭愧。也给刀喂了点血，锋还是挺利的。#篆刻 #seal #书法 #书道 #calligraphy
  • An attempt at 九叠篆 freehand. Seal will probably need another an hour or two of careful correction to look ok. #seal #篆刻 #书法 #书道 #calligraphy
  • A pleasant Saturday afternoon making these at a friend’s place. A glutinous rice based skin coloured by purple sweet potato, filled with sweetened taro yam paste. #angkukueh #redtortoisecake #pastry #cake #teochew