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As part of their heritage, the Yap family made red rice wine in their kitchen for decades and enjoyed it at every celebration. Wondering if there were others who loved it as much, they casually offered it on Carousell, calling it Ye Traditions. The outpouring of memories it elicited surprised them.
Former US President Donald Trump (left) and US President Joe Biden. (File Photos: Reuters/David Dee Delgado, Shannon Stapleton)
“It’s so labour intensive! Are people going to continue to brew it? Are there people out there looking for it,” she mulled.
It all started because of a passing remark Yap Jinyen made on her birthday in 2019. The millennial was enjoying the red rice wine brewed by her mother Yap Joo Eng – a hallowed family tradition for generations – when she wondered out loud if brewing rice wine was a “disappearing art”.
The elder Yap is a 60-year-old retired accountant while her daughter is a 31-year-old tech professional. It was never their intention to start a home business selling red rice wine – in fact, they did not expect many people to buy it.
But their Carousell post had a life of its own. Orders grew to 100 bottles a month and the duo found themselves starting a pre-order system because they were not able to produce their red rice wine fast enough.
Her mother shared her sentiments. And off the cuff, the duo decided to try selling homemade culinary red rice wine on Carousell that year. They called the business Ye Traditions, incorporating the family surname.
They also added other traditional products such as red rice lees (a residual product of fermenting red rice wine) and fermented glutinous rice wine (unfiltered rice wine with visible rice bits) used to make traditional dishes, as well as Hakka cooked dishes such as red rice wine chicken soup and Hakka wine chicken.
