Cocoa Bloom Mahjong Set — 160 Tiles

Most American sets ask you to read pink and green off a white tile. This one gives you the opposite: a deep, fully opaque cocoa brown with an olive undertone, polished to a glaze-like gloss, with the back in exactly the same brown and absolutely smooth — no mark, no logo, no pattern. The edge is a single band of the same cocoa, so from any angle the tile is one solid color and the only thing you see is the carving. The supplier's method is straightforward and it shows: painted after engraving, so the blush pink and olive sit down in the grooves rather than resting on the surface.

The three suits are drawn to hold up against that dark ground. Dots are blush-pink rosettes built like a rose window — a fine sawtooth outer rim, an inner ring of small rays, and a solid pink disc at the center. Bams are bamboo stalks with joints and pointed leaves, cut in blush pink line work, and One Bam is a small blush-pink bird perched at an angle on a leafy branch. Craks put the Chinese numerals from one to nine at nearly full tile size in blush pink, with a very small Arabic numeral tucked into the upper left. The Winds carry no picture at all — one capital letter in a heavy blackletter cut, in black, filling the middle of the tile. The Dragons pair an open rectangle framed in a narrow band of small flowers and leaves with a coiling Eastern dragon among cloud and flower scrollwork, once in gold-tinged olive and once in plum red. The eight flower tiles each get their own plant, carved in two or three layered colors. Because the color is laid in after the grooves are cut, the artwork is held inside the tile instead of printed across it, which is what lets a set like this keep looking right after years of shuffling.

Set: 160 tiles

Spare tiles: Three spares — one completely blank tile and two engraved with a single small multi-point star

Play style: NMJL-ready — American mahjong

Players: 4

Material: Acrylic

Faces: Deep cocoa brown with an olive cast, fully opaque, glazed high-gloss finish

Backs: The same cocoa brown as the face, completely smooth — no mark, no logo

Edges: One single band of cocoa brown, matching face and back — each tile is one solid color throughout

Artwork: Engraved, then painted — the supplier's stated method is paint applied after carving

Lettering: Chinese characters, plus JOKER, N, E, W and S in Latin letters

Numbers: Very small Arabic numerals in the upper left corner of the Craks

Dots: Blush-pink rosettes in a mandala or rose-window layout — fine sawtooth outer rim, inner ring of small rays, solid pink disc at the center

Bams: Bamboo stalks with joints and pointed leaves in blush-pink line work; One Bam is a small blush-pink bird perched at an angle on a leafy branch

Craks: Chinese numerals one through nine at nearly full tile size, engraved in blush pink

Winds: No image — one capital letter in a heavy blackletter cut, in black, filling the center of the tile

Dragons: Open rectangle framed by a narrow band of small flowers and leaves; a coiling Eastern dragon among cloud and flower scrollwork in gold-tinged olive, and the same coiling design in plum red

Flowers: 8 tiles, each a different flower study in blush pink, plum red, olive and black

Jokers: A swallow in flight inside a thin circular frame, with JOKER engraved at the top edge; each Joker shows a different flight direction and wing position