I like the idea of the game, and it looks like it could be quite enjoyable but...
The expanding tiles doesn't work. Not in a 'Oh it isn't fun' sort of way, but in a functional sort of way. It would be fine is there was a way to move the play area around or even zoom out, but by time I got to 'Thinking' with the sticks and stones, I essentially got softlocked due to physically not having enough space on the board for more tiles. That being said, my review might be a bit off due to not being able to experience the full game, but...
Balance: Up until I got softlocked I was able to enjoy exploring and seeing what the game had to offer. I have seen some people mentioning difficulty getting resources later on, but I didn't see that while playing.
Uniqueness: While not entirely original, there aren't many games with these sorts of mechanics, the top ones I can think of being Cultist Simulator and Stacklands. I think these mechanics can work really wonderfully for exploration with limited visuals and wish they were explored more, so kudos for that!
Fun: I had been having fun until I got softlocked, but I got softlocked pretty early on and it sort of sucked all of that fun away. Due to being able to click things to see recipes, I know there was a lot more to do. It left me feeling cheated.
Theme: Just like with balance, I couldn't really tell how the theme would progress after I got softlocked, and because of that it felt more like a survival incremental where you collect resources to build a community similar to stackland then a game about alchemy. The only alchemy thing I saw was the cauldron.