September 16, 2009 at 9:25 am (Administrative, Incense)
Been fairly busy the last couple weeks and just starting to catch up again on the incense front. Will be rolling out more reviews during the next month or so. Soon up, we should have a composite review of Triloka’s premium stick line. I’m also working on redoing the reviews of the Ramakrishnanda line, hoping the first installment should be up today or tomorrow. When I first did these it was well early in ORS history, when this site was part of mikeprattle and comments were not only perfunctory but the context of what was being imported was very different than it is today. Not only that but the company has come up with five new blends in the meantime, meaning that it should roll out in about four parts (they even have their own aloeswood blend now, which is quite nice).
I should also be rolling out a more informal and light overview of a bunch of new and mostly modern Japanese sticks, as well as the new Ancient Forests line from the US, which should be of great interest to fans of Mermade and Incienso de Santa Fe – these are something of a priority to get the word out on a lot of new product. On tap also, a trio of newly imported Yamadamatsu sticks available through the Japan Incense store, the next trio of flavored Nikhil champas, a bunch of Primo incenses, more Trilokas in the cone and rope categories, further installments in the Shroff and Fred Soll lines, and the beginning of an indepth look at the world-class Pure-Incense line starting with the Connoisseur blends. And as usual lots, lots more, there’s so much coming out now it’s almost hard to keep up with!
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August 17, 2009 at 9:36 am (Administrative, Incense, Incense Notes/Samplers)
Slowly working on a few things, but they’re coming together. Got a write up of two Baieido large coils in the works, slow going because I seem to find it hard to fit coils like this into my incense burning very often, but I did manage to burn off 3/4 of a Premium Junenko over the weekend when busy, thumbs up on this one, more details coming.
Also finally into my Purelands reviews, a few notes over a third of the way into the six scents. Mighty fine incenses these are and don’t want them to get lost in the Pure Incense flood of late especially when they’re not only comparable but slightly more affordable too.
Hope to roll out some Triloka reviews in September and we’ll be continuing the Fred Soll series through the end of the year (I think Ross has a group up next). I just got in a big batch of new Soll scents including a number of their Frankincense blends, but I think the one that really surprised me was the Happy Hemp which really doesn’t smell like your most recent Phish concert, but rather a slightly sagey and very pinon deep, green-ish incense. I also tried the Pure Incense Connoissuer Nepal Musk which reminded me a lot of the Blue Lotus, yet completely different, almost as if they share some similarities and then move in their own hue-like directions. I’ve tried the whole Connoissuer line except for the Frank, Jasmine and Sandalwood and have to say they all get big thumbs up from me, truly a line worthy of the name connoissuer.
Finally got to compare the Baieido Koh to the Sawayaka Kobunboku and indeed these two seem identical incenses to my nose as I thought I had read. This means my stock is fairly deep now, so I guess I’m glad I really love this stuff. I’ve also had the Tokusen Syokokkoku out again, right after finally getting to experience the long Hakusui roll, and for sure the former gets closer to the smell of the straight up Hakusui wood than its stick namesake. This wood just continues to amaze me and I really need to restock, it’s almost as if nature itself made a blend of its own right within the wood itself, deep, expansive and wonderfully spicy. If you ever wonder why a bunch of us aren’t quite so taken with the cultivated aloeswood, it may be due to this or the Ogurayama. As with many things quality reigns over quantity when it comes to aloeswood resin.
Also coming up eventually, a few more of the Nikhil mixed champas, a quartet more from Shrinivas, several Primo scents and depending on mood and whim some notes on a number of recently imported and often modern incenses from a number of smaller Japanese incense companies like Scents of Japan, Saraike Kunbutsudo, Shochikudo and others. And there’s a lot more really impressive scents on the ways to these shores too premature to announce at this point.
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July 27, 2009 at 9:08 am (Administrative, Incense Resources)
Under the page links on the left is a new page for a thread to discuss and share information on incense suppliers and retailers. Guidelines posted at the top of the threads.
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July 6, 2009 at 10:43 am (Administrative, Incense)
I’ve posted a new comment on the Incense Trading page (link on left). The box has now gone full circle and will eventually be on its way again so for those interested please see this thread for details.
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June 7, 2009 at 6:07 pm (Administrative, Incense)
Just a brief note here. For the moment, the Yamandamatsu products will only be avaiable at Kohshi’s San Francisco store and not via the internet. The Seijudo sticks are at both the Japan Incense website as well as the Kohshi store in San Francisco’s Japan Town. I understand that the Seijudo is selling quite briskly, which makes sense as these are easily some of the best kyara and aloeswoods I have ever gotten to smell. Look for a review on them later this week.
-Ross
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June 3, 2009 at 11:55 am (Administrative, Incense)
I’ve finally got around to splitting the Japanese and Tibetan hall of fames into their own pages. The Japanese page, except for the removal of the Tibetan incenses, is roughly unchanged; however the Tibetan page is much expanded with a new tiering scheme and the addition of more good scents. Please do stop by and check them out and as always let me know if there are recommendations. It should also be noted that these are all scents I can find a US source for, so there are a few scents left off since I wouldn’t know what tier to put them in. If they are of interest to anyone I can create a new tier for the (very small) list) and possibly a similar one for the Japanese page for unsourced “hall of famers”.
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June 2, 2009 at 1:35 pm (Administrative, Incense, Incense News, Newly Imported Incense)
Essence of the Ages has expanded their Indian incense stock in a near intimidating fashion. First of all, the expected Shroff Channabasappa new stock and restock is now in the house. This includes 24 incenses new to these shores and includes a half dozen wet masalas. Also completely new are stock by two Indian incense companies distributed through Britain, Pure-incense (about 3 dozen new scents all at connoisseur prices) and Purelands/Bhakti Yoga (6 scents), as well as the Maroma company who have what looks like 40-50 new blends. That adds up to well over 100 new incenses!
There are also quite a few new Tibetans in stock including a number of new Bhutanese incenses from last month’s e-mail-out, incenses from Shechen, Kuenzang Chodtin, Buddha Dhoop Udhyog, World Peace, Zambala and Dzogchen. You could almost create a new shop with these two updates alone, and suffice it to say we at ORS are happy to hear about tips on any new scents while preparing what we can for the review queue.
More news from Ross here… Kohshi in San Francisco is about to release incenses from two of the best in Japan, Yamadamatsu and Seijudo. Both of these companies are large and have a real depth of products, much of it at the very top of the incense world. We are talking beautiful Kyaras, Aloewoods and Sandalwoods here. I have gotten to sample some of it and I can tell you that it is superb. Might give the Shoyeido Premiums a run for the money 
… I’ll add that I completely agree with Ross on these, some of these will compete with your favorites.
Stay tuned.
Coming up in the next several weeks or so the initial salvo in a long multi-part series on Fred Soll’s incense line, a few more Shrinivas Sugandhalaya/Satya Baba scents, three Tibetans from Boudha, two large coils from Baieido, 7 scents from Primo, 6 from Nandi, lots more from Shroff and probably my next write up, 6 roll incenses from Mandala Arts.
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April 7, 2009 at 10:39 am (Administrative, Encens du Monde, Incense, Kokando, Kunjudo, Shoyeido)
In my last Encense du Monde article I was given assistance by a couple readers on the origins of some of the incenses, that is what company they originated from. Given that most of the line heralds from several companies I thought I’d put up the rest of the line to see if we can’t collectively clear up the rest of the line. Originally I thought in doing so we’d find out where some duplications are, however it’s become clear that even in cases where there seems to be duplication, there often isn’t. I was pretty stunned to find out that Middle Path and Mount Fuji were apparently the same name as the two Daily incenses Daigen Koh and Hoyei Koh, as they are very different in scent. So anyway, here’s the list after the break, if you can fill in the gaps in the comments I’d most appreciate it. Pictures of the incenses can be found here and on subsequent pages. Eventually once complete I’ll put up a comparison page between similarly named incenses for reference. Read the rest of this entry »
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February 19, 2009 at 2:56 pm (Administrative)
WordPress have fortuitously added some more comment features, which I’ve just added to the site, which should help on a couple of those pages where the comments are getting deep (such as the Ask ORS page). I’ve enabled this so that 50 comments will appear max per page and the newest comment will now be at the TOP of the first page, so now you won’t have to scroll down for that. Nesting should also be available now, although I haven’t looked closely to see if it works. But hopefully this will make things a little easier and help make it possible not to close down the Ask page and start a new one.
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February 3, 2009 at 10:26 am (Administrative, Incense)
In the pipeline for the next couple weeks or so: The Direct Help Foundation’s Maya Devi line, the first in a four part (and eventually more) look at the Shroff Channabasappa masala line, and four more from Shrinivas (Geet Govind, Royal, (TT) Loban, Shivshankar). Soon to follow, high end Tibetan magic from Mindroling and Medicine King, a couple large coils from Baieido, more from the Incense from India line, the Himenoka pressed incense package and 12 Angelscents from Shoyeido, a few Tibetan ropes, lots more from Shrinivas (including most of their more recent releases), Mother’s India Fragrances, more from Mystic Temple, dozens from Fred Soll and Nitiraj, and lots lots more.
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