温故 – Enko, a name derived from the chinese proverb : 温故知新, which means by revisiting the old, one learns new things.
It was made with the thought and memory of visiting an old friend, the late Mr Lee at his medicinal hall. The first generation of this incense was a sophisticated series of warming herbs surrounding a rare exotic core ingredient, 20 years aged mandarin peels obtained from Mr Lee. It resulted in a very energetic stick, warm and joyous, easily filling the room with its presence.
In the later generations of it, the recipe was tweaked with a few other ingredients, finally arriving at a final composition that gives it a sense of warm, bitter sweet with lingering presence. The funny thing about this incense, it is made up of so many herbs that were initially like a cacophony, a loud noisy audience, but when one final correct ingredient was added, everything else fell into place, it became a single peak, like how violins, violas, cellos and double basses in an orchestra giving a unified symphony of strings. A lesson learnt on how sophisticated incense blending can be.
the incense took a week to make, including hand grinding of the aged mandarin peels/other ingredients and has been aged for 3 months, to which it has just been deemed ready for sale and enjoyment.
the price is for 10grams of incense, a roll of approximately 60 to 70 sticks of 1.5mm thickness.
1st batch : November 2015