Does the age of the agarwood tree matter??!! Actually….. the age of the infection/resination is the most important, not particularly the age of the tree. If you have had chopped down an agarwood tree that is a couple hundred years old.. you will find quite significant amounts of white wood. Poor old tree. And if… [Read More…]
Tennendo Frankincense – the best frankincense stick
Incense : Nyukoh (Frankincense) Brand : Tennendo Source : Purchased from Japan Amount Burnt so far prior to this review : 13 sticks Taste profile : Sweet : +++ Sour, Salty, Spicy: very slight tinge Scent characteristics : Texture – thick juicy creamy Binder notes – little Intensity – +++ Focus : Thick diffuse… [Read More…]
Scientific Literature on Kyara
well.. thought it could be time to get a little scientific 🙂 when I was doing my phd… reading science papers was a norm, they contain reasonably credible, peer reviewed, and quality information on various subject matters in depth. When it comes to incense or fragrant woods, it would be strange if people choose to… [Read More…]
Why does tea taste different when brewed in Yixing wares
Why is Redox (reduction/oxidation) of compounds important in tea? The ancient people had realized that oxidation often resulted in unique and special aromas/fragrances being developed in the tea, that was why oolong teas were born. In the process of making oolong teas, the tea leaves are bruised to allow for controlled oxidation to occur. Similarly, when one drinks some Wuyi Mountain Rock Tea (yan cha), there is… [Read More…]
Agarwood in the 1980s
I thought I would share a couple of pictures which I had requested from Mr Lee (owner of the Kyarazen 1985 oud), to allow people to have a “preview” of what agarwood was like in the 80s. It was not uncommon to have gigantic well resinated woods pass through the hands of Mr Lee as… [Read More…]
What if you have discovered a huge chunk of kyara
Friend called and the conversation went like : AHHHHH!!! HELP!!! I think I just saw a huge chunk of kyara, probably 1 kilogram , and the trader doesn’t know!! Me : What’s the price? Friend : Not confirmed, but possibly below $50 per gram Me : Then WHAT are you waiting for ?!?!??! Friend :… [Read More…]
Agarwood beads
Agarwood beads are amongst the hardest to verify amongst all agarwood related products., This is due to the way the beads are made, spun, polished etc. The ultimate way to verify a bead, is just to split it into half, check the grain, resination, and to heat it on a heater at various temperatures. But… [Read More…]
An Awesome Tea site
It wasn’t easy convincing Mr Teaism to write about tea and tea culture online. At least I think I tried, and many other people too had been encouraging him to, and so he finally agreed! Mr Teaism is a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in Tea, especially that of Pu-Er Tea and Yixing Purple Clay Teapots. No… [Read More…]
Cultivated Agarwood
Agarwood plantations are common all throughout South East asia today. Some plantations are beginning to reap the fruits of what they had planted a decade ago, and have pushed out a myriad of intriguing agarwood products such as agarwood leaf tea, agarwood cookies, agarwood flavoured instant noodles, wood chips, oils, soaps etc. The strange… [Read More…]
When Pu Erh tea is Poo-Erh
Apologies again for the slow posting this week, been extremely busy with offline activities and several local incense events etc Perhaps just for a breather, I thought I could have a little detour by writing something on pu-erh tea. The internet is abuzz and obsessed with pu-erh tea. If you go onto some popular forums… [Read More…]
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