February Top 10

February 27, 2012 at 3:22 pm (Dhuni, Happy Hari, Incense, India, Japan, Mermade Magickal Arts, Mike, Shoyeido, Shroff Channabasappa, United States)

It has been a long time since I’ve done an incense top 10 here and it has been a while since I visited some of my stock, so I’ve limited the entries to seven as you can more or less count the recent Dhuni group as four slots. This is basically a lot of what I’ve been using of late….

  1. Various Incenses / Mermade Magickal Arts – Let’s just call this first entry a salute to one of the US’s top incense talents Katlyn Breene. Mermade should be well known around these parts, but this is a reminder that there is an almost incredibly high consistency level in the work from this company from the art to the incense to the presentation. It doesn’t matter if it’s evergreen treasures like Earth Church or ancient blends like Kyphi, every item is delievered with skill, integrity and a dose of light. To be honest I’m not sure this site would even be here had I not been blown away by blends like Dream Snake and Dragon Fire over 15 years ago so it’s always a great joy for me to spread the word.
  2. Happy Hari / Oud Masala – One of the most incredible Indian incenses ever created, ever since I got my last batch from the samples I think I’ve burned one of these a day. There are weaknesses to most Indian aloeswoods but this is an almost perfect balance of oudy wood qualities and champa sweetness. It’s an absolute delight.
  3. Dhuni / Frangipani, Lakshmi, Sandalwood, Temple - As I’ve said before Dhuni’s biggest weakness is their lack of 100g packages. Because honestly these 12-15 stick packages I can put down in a weekend. Anyway I reviewed these recently so check there for more but this is a terrific group. I might give Frangipani the nudge of the four just because it’s so florally gorgeous.
  4. Ross Urrere / Ocean of Night Sure this is highly biased, to put one of my cohort’s incenses on this list (and I should say it here too, there wouldn’t be an ORS without Ross), but if you go check out the sales page, you’ll see I’m not alone in admiring this incredible mix of high quality woods and herbs.  In 2030 we’ll be looking back at how great Ross’s “early work” was. :)
  5. Kyukyodo / Unkin  Of all the Kyukyodo items I put up for sale I think this could be the biggest surprise none of these moved as this is a terrific incense and one unavailable outside the five roll box. I almost think of this as something like the Kai Un Koh of the Kyukyodo line up in that I think for the price it’s a bit better of an aloeswood than you’d normally get. For a while I was lighting up two sticks at once which really increases the woodiness. It’s smooth, undeniably Kyukyodo in that there are some oils at work. And yes I have two rolls left, but not for long!
  6. Shroff Channabasappa / Sugandha Mantri – I’ve had a difficult time thinking or even talking about the batch Sugandha Mantri came with as they’re all very good incenses, yet to some extent most of them seem to be champa based with a mysterious and exotic floral/musk blend on top. This tends to mean it’s a group of incenses you haven’t really tried before and aren’t comparable to much that’s out there in the field. There’s really only a hair of difference between this and the others.
  7. Shoyeido / Premium / Ga-Ho – There’s a pungent green exotic floral note to this that has always made it a favorite in my book, it’s like the beautiful flower you’ve never smelled in person before. Most of the Shoyeido premiums are amazing but I have a soft spot for this one, it perhaps has the type of aloeswood hit I like best.

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Shroff Channabasappa / Dry Masala / Paris Beauty, Rose, Sachet, White, Woods

October 5, 2011 at 7:22 am (Incense, India, Mike, Rose, Shroff Channabasappa, Woods)

Shroff Channabasappa Part 1
Shroff Channabasappa Part 2
Shroff Channabasappa Part 3
Shroff Channabasappa Part 4
Shroff Channabasappa Part 5
Shroff Channabasappa Part 6
Shroff Channabasappa Part 7
Shroff Channabasappa Part 8
Shroff Channabasappa Part 9
Shroff Channabasappa Part 10
Shroff Channabasappa Part 11
Shroff Channabasappa Part 12
Shroff Channabasappa Part 13
Shroff Channabasappa Part 14
Shroff Channabasappa Part 15

This is the final installment (starting with Part 14) of Shroff dry masalas that covers everything up to the latest batch.

Paris Beauty, like Nine Flowers from the last installment, is another wood-based floral and the results are quite harsh. Even trying to distinguish what perfume is being attempted feels like breathing sawdust. It’s just too unpleasant an experience to work, a cheap perfume in a wood shop. To even discuss the florals doesn’t seem worthwhile as they’re masked and interfered with by the base from bottom to top.

The Rose would have been totally redundant with the Rose Masala, but since it strikes me as slightly better and not quite so sickly incense, it’s worth mentioning as an upgrade. As you might expect this isn’t a true rose scent, but it’s a decent floral aroma and still a rough toss in the rose direction. Amazingly, the base is slightly less harsh here than the lion’s share of incenses in this group.

Sachet is a bizarre name for another campfire blend, there’s a huge difference between dry herbs and this sort of harsh burning, bitter mix, like a bonfire of twigs. It’s very hard to see the point of this, it’s harsher than a lot of low grade Tibetans.

The White is so redundant and interchangeable with Kapoor Kacheri or Masala that you have to wonder why the company bothered with any of them. It has lighter touches like the Nagarmotha at times, but for the most part this still smells like burning two by fours with some of the paint still on them.

Don’t let the name Woods make you think it will be a better incense, quite frankly it’s difficult to tell from the aroma what woods were even used. The result is cheap and slightly alkaline, maybe even a little briny. It smells a little like a very cheap chandan sandalwood turned bad. Even if you like random firewood smoke, this still might strike you as off. Seems like just another way of making some money off sawdust to be honest.

Anyway, I can’t imagine most ORS readers will be happy with most of the last three installments of incenses, other than the Chypre these are usually very harsh, cheap woody sticks that barely differ one from the next. I don’t mean to pick on Shroff since they’re still practically the leader in Indian incense, but there’s really no excuse for this batch.

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Shroff Channabasappa / Dry Masala / Masala, Mysore Dashang, Nagarmotha, Nargis Natural, Nine Flowers

October 4, 2011 at 6:56 am (Floral, Incense, India, Jasmine, Mike, Shroff Channabasappa)

Shroff Channabasappa Part 1
Shroff Channabasappa Part 2
Shroff Channabasappa Part 3
Shroff Channabasappa Part 4
Shroff Channabasappa Part 5
Shroff Channabasappa Part 6
Shroff Channabasappa Part 7
Shroff Channabasappa Part 8
Shroff Channabasappa Part 9
Shroff Channabasappa Part 10
Shroff Channabasappa Part 11
Shroff Channabasappa Part 12
Shroff Channabasappa Part 13
Shroff Channabasappa Part 14

This group continues looking at the dry masalas from recent Shroff batches that started in Part 14.

The Masala is not very different at all from Kapoor Kacheri (is calling an incense Masala mean this is like a generic?) and especially from Natural Masala of which this seems a variant. It’s a mixture of cheap scented burning woods and leaves, mixed with a slight bit of sweetness. Like a lot of incenses in this group, its main feature is just being boring, Woody masalas of this quality are likely to do little more than irritate your sinuses.

Once again, the Mysore Dashang is a highly dry, woddy masala style, but at least in this case there’s a move to create a more distinct aroma out of it. It’s not a great one, it still kind of has the harvesty quality of burning leaves, but at least here the sandalwood is a touch sweet so the overall stick isn’t as harsh as some of the others in this group. Overall it seems a waste of time and money when you compare this to the wet masalas.

The Nagarmotha has a light, grassy aroma that smells like a quality brush fire. Like so many incenses in this batch, this has cheap wood and a tedious base. All of these tend to run together after a while, even after a half to a dozen sticks there doesn’t appear to be anything to lift these above almost any of the other incenses the company creates.

The Nargis Natural is unnecessary, really, with the much more distinct 1931 scent available. This is similar in style to the Rose Natural, with a gentle floral scent buried in a sandalwood/cheap wood/benzoin mix. Like the others, this is kind of harsh, but at least you do get an idea of the flower scent. But again, very fair overall.

The Nine Flowers came in the same batch as the Bakhoor and Paris Beauty, along with the wet masalas. Like its name it contains a combination of florals that ends up scented like pink valentine candies. However one might expect the word “Natural” here similar to the Rose Natural and Nargis Natural as like those this is a wood based floral that’s really not the best way to portray gentle floral scents. However, of this group this is marginally the best.

Paris Beauty, Rose, Sachet, White and Woods up next installment.

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Shroff Channabasappa / Dry Masala / Bakhoor, Basil Amber, Cedar, Chypre, Kapoor Kacheri

October 3, 2011 at 7:30 am (Amber, Bakhoor, Basil / Tulsi, Cedar, Chypre, Incense, India, Mike, Shroff Channabasappa)

Shroff Channabasappa Part 1
Shroff Channabasappa Part 2
Shroff Channabasappa Part 3
Shroff Channabasappa Part 4
Shroff Channabasappa Part 5
Shroff Channabasappa Part 6
Shroff Channabasappa Part 7
Shroff Channabasappa Part 8
Shroff Channabasappa Part 9
Shroff Channabasappa Part 10
Shroff Channabasappa Part 11
Shroff Channabasappa Part 12
Shroff Channabasappa Part 13

It can’t be a secret how much I love the incense from Shroff Channabasappa, but it was in this batch (which will cover the next three installments) where the company has made some serious missteps in what they’ve been deciding to import (they’ve of course made up for this in the last two waves of wet and semidry masalas). In fact many of the larger packages of these incenses have already been cut to move and there’s good reason for it.

I find the sorting schematic for Shroff to generally be problematic, because even though all of these are listed under dry masalas, Bakhoor is a charcoal and most of the rest of this group aren’t nearly as perfumed or intense as most of the other incenses in the same grouping. Bakhoor means well but doesn’t perform well at all, almost entirely due to the charcoal base, which seems to be more offputting than usual for the style. It’s slightly thicker than these sticks usually are and as such it puts out an almost suffocating level of smoke, a level where it would be difficult for any aroma to fight over. You would think Shroff’s perfuming skills would help matters, but unfortunately this ends up being more reminiscent of synthetic perfume oils on cheap bakhoors (although to be fair there are a lot of true bakhoors like this) than deep oud woods or amber. Some of the elements here might have worked better with some adjustment but without an aggressive base, the charcoal ends up taking its place, something you don’t want. The results ring hollow, a sort of pseudo-bakhoor scent with weird citrus subnotes around the edges.

The basil (or tulsi) oil in the Basil Amber is quite nice, it brings out its vivacious green qualities, but the overall incense is a stranger fit. The base stick is sort of vaguely reminiscent of one of the other Shroff ambers, but only their least desirable qualities come out underneath the basil oil onslaught. There’s a bit of sandalwood or benzoin that gives the middle a weakness since it doesn’t seem to merge with the perfume. It’s almost worth owning if you really need a basil in your mix, but as an incense it’s mediocre.

Althought it’s hard to get excited about another Cedar incense, at least with this version we’re getting a new take. The qualities here are high altitude and evergreen, rather than the sweet Madhavadas style masalas. This brings it a bit closer in style to something Tibetan. Its slightly pungent in the end and feels perhaps as authentic as you’d hope, but it’s inevitable campfire associations will be evoked.

Of this batch, the Chypre is probably the most successful, possibly because it’s more akin to the original Shroff releases in terms of perfume intensity. In fact the closest previous Shroff to this style is the Parrot Green Durbar, sweet, sour and citrus, with a nice bit of breadth to it. I’ve found a lot of the sticks faulty in my batch, however, many of them going out at least once in the first inch and some going out later. But it’s essentially a unique enough aroma (it’s much more balanced then the PGD) to be worth checking out, however, it seems pretty obvious this is new enough that not everyone will like it.

The Kapoor Kacheri is a perfect example of how I feel like much of this batch was Shroff getting rid of cheap materials. It’s an extremely dull masala with a very basic campfire/wood scent that does little to distinguish itself from, say, natural masalas. It smells a lot like leaves burning and seems hastily thrown together.

The thrashing continues next installment…

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A few admin notes

September 22, 2011 at 3:04 pm (Administrative, Incense, Incense Notes/Samplers, Mike, Shroff Channabasappa)

Reviews have been a little thin of late, I’m afraid I have a lot of balls up in the air at the moment. This is sort of an unusual situation, because I have notes written up for a couple dozen reviews but I’ve not been able to get the conditions needed to get them typed up. What this means is that until I get these typed up, I won’t be looking at requests for reviews outside of what I get sent samples of. If things seem so slow that you want to try your hand at reviewing incenses, contact me at the e-mail on the About page and we’ll discuss.

I do want to also mention that I become more and more pleased with the latest batch of Shroff semi-dry masalas (the loner dry, Holy, is worth skipping). I still don’t know if I could even remotely describe most of them as they all have very subtle and individual personalities, but I think this is the first time I’ve been excited about a batch rather than individual incenses. I think part of this is they seem very high quality, while I don’t think there’s real musk in these, whatever they’re using is about as close to the real thing as I’ve tried. It’s really a cool line.

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New Shroff thread

September 13, 2011 at 7:15 am (Incense Notes/Samplers, India, Mike, Shroff Channabasappa)

There’s 10 new Shroff incenses in at Essence of Ages and I’ve finally got my hands on them. I’ve tried three so far and I’d have to say based on these three that this batch is likely to be mostly nag champa variants, in fact a lot of what I’m smelling reminds me of Shrinivas in their better days. I’ve always wondered if there was halmaddi in Shroff incenses, with these it doesn’t seem like there’s any question. The issue, as was often the case with Shrinivas, is that distinctiveness tends to suffer a little bit and none of the three I tried really popped out at me. The three I tried were Yatra (good), Pride (decent) and Yogi Bouquet (best of the three). I don’t think I could describe any of them all that well yet. I’ll post further impressions in comments as I check them out and hope you all do as well…

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Shroff Channabasappa / Wet Masalas / Ruby, Shanti, Shran, Super Star

July 19, 2011 at 6:58 am (India, Kewda / Kewra / Pandanus / Screwpine, Mike, Rose, Sandalwood, Shroff Channabasappa, Vetivert / Khus)

Shroff Channabasappa Part 1
Shroff Channabasappa Part 2
Shroff Channabasappa Part 3
Shroff Channabasappa Part 4
Shroff Channabasappa Part 5
Shroff Channabasappa Part 6
Shroff Channabasappa Part 7
Shroff Channabasappa Part 8
Shroff Channabasappa Part 9
Shroff Channabasappa Part 10
Shroff Channabasappa Part 11
Shroff Channabasappa Part 12

For a bit more introduction to this series of wet masalas, please be sure to read Part 12 above.

Red or pink colored durbar or nag champa sticks (for instance Mystic Temple’s Kali Champa or Incense from India’s Red Poppies) are all fairly common in scent, they tend to be floral on top, usually in a rose-like direction. Even back in the days when halmaddi was more available very few of these stood out in any way and nowadays they’re almost interchangeable. So it’s fortunate that Shroff’s Ruby approaches the same formula and finally makes it go somewhere. For one thing the perfume that tends to be bland in other similar sticks is done much better here as you’d expect, with an interesting mix of rose and strawberry notes. The incense really fits its name, akin to a berry scented candle, but much richer. This one was something of a late comer for me, but now I’d consider it one of the best in this excellent range.

Shanti has the same perfume strength as Little Woods, but moves in spicier and herbal directions. The ingredients list this as a sandalwood and vetivert combination, but like Drona which shares these two ingredients, Shanti is much more distinct, and probably distinct enough in a way that you’ll either like this or not. The sandalwood is very noticeable on this one, at times it even seems concentrated, giving the whole scent a deep richness. This too has a caramel subnote and even a bit of sweet muskiness, but it seems to be something not on the ingredients list that sets this apart, as again, I’m not detecting any massive amounts of vetivert in this, but I do detect and herbal quality it might be providing through the combination.

Shran is an incense for screwpine/kewada lovers, as in many ways this might be described as a kewada champa. Unfortunately I’m not sure it works all that well as an incense, but then again I might not really count myself so much in the screwpine tent. The ingredients seem to be as high quality as any other incense in the range, including some rose and sandal notes in the mix, the former more or less overlapping some with the screwpine. It’s a mellow scent overall but I don’t find the base and perfumes to work all that well together, in fact it seems that any of the sweeter, richer notes in the base are actually fighting with the screwpine notes, which seems like it works better with more dryness.

Super Star seems to be modelled on Satya’s Super Hit, or at least the first time I burned a stick it reminded me of what Super Hit used to smell like when it was brilliant instead of dull. This is a beautiful combination of sandalwood, rose and what Shroff calls in several of these incenses “oriental” notes. The result is a very sweet champa with an accessible rose-infused aroma in front. In fact this scent has the breadth and richness of old school champas and is quite reminiscent of the kinds of scents Shrinivas did in its heyday. It’s quite easy to recommend this as it’s friendly on every level.

More Shroff reviews to come, this is one company that’s almost impossible to stay ahead of.

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Shroff Channabasappa / Wet Masala / Darshan, Drona, Little Woods, Nag Champa

July 18, 2011 at 7:00 am (Amber, Champa, Citrus, Fougere, India, Mike, Mint, Musk, Rose, Sandalwood, Shroff Channabasappa, Vetivert / Khus)

Shroff Channabasappa Part 1
Shroff Channabasappa Part 2
Shroff Channabasappa Part 3
Shroff Channabasappa Part 4
Shroff Channabasappa Part 5
Shroff Channabasappa Part 6
Shroff Channabasappa Part 7
Shroff Channabasappa Part 8
Shroff Channabasappa Part 9
Shroff Channabasappa Part 10
Shroff Channabasappa Part 11

There are probably enough comments on Shroff’s last batch of wet masala incenses in various threads on ORS that reviews at this point are near redundant. This is partially because this batch is easily one of the best to be imported to the United States in years (perhaps only the batch with Pearl, Jungle Prince et al was more celebrated). In terms of quality to cost ratio, you may not find better incense out there.

Previously there were only two wet masalas, French Musk and Saffron. I think the French Musk probably fits better in style with the group represented by Pearl, Jungle Prince et al, which leaves Saffron as the best comparison for the new batch. However these don’t strike me as wet masalas in the same way the old halmaddi-rich champas did, they’re not particularly gooey or easy to pull apart. But they’re all very rich, powerful and high quality scents based on some combinations that you might not have come across before.

Fresh on the stick, Darshan is redolent of candy green spearmint and you’ll need to like that to like this incense. The other ingredient here listed is musk with citrus, but there aren’t any really overt citrus elements that come to my mind, such as lemon or orange. What happens is that the mint and musk end up combining with the sugar and spice base to give off an aroma not far off from baking Christmas cookies. There’s even an unusual caramel note in the mix that helps to increase its sweetness. If you’ve familiar with past spice champas (the one that comes to mind is the long, sadly deleted Blue Pearl Spice Champa) you’ll have the general idea, but the spearmint really makes this a one of a kind stick. I find it particularly impressive because mint oils are often powerful enough to overpower most other notes in an aroma, so the balance struck here is clearly the work of a very impressive recipe. I fell in love with this one instantly and never grow tired of it. I’m likely approaching 100g already burned already.

Drona could be the weakest of this new group of eight, but relatively speaking that still puts it way above the incenses in recent reviews like Nitiraj or Sarathi. The ingredients here are musk, sandalwood and vetivert, however only the musk strikes me as particularly obvious and you can definitely compare this incense in part to Shroff’s French Musk. It ends up being a little on the generic champa side and shares the caramel notes of the Darshan, but other than the slight vetivert teases along the outside, no other element in the incense is any louder. The aroma ends up being kind of light and fluffy, with slight touches of vanilla and cocoa powder, but unfortuantely it doesn’t really have much of a hook or personality to sell itself. One might think of a mild nougat scent, slightly creamy, even certain latte types are reminiscent.

Little Woods is quite simply one of those incenses ORS was created to tell people about, it’s a triumph on every level, simply one of the very best incenses you can buy at its price level. The ingredients here, perhaps confusingly, are listed as fouger, oriental, rose and ambery sandal. The former element appears to be particularly important, and rather than describe it myself, I’ll just send you here. Of course any really classic incense is going to have a blend so perfectly balanced that to break it down would be difficult, and that couldn’t be more true for Little Woods. I find some similarity between this and N Ranga Rao’s woods, particularly the way certain wood subnotes merge with almost citrus-like evergreen touches on the top, but that’s as far as the comparison goes, because the perfume on Little Woods is much richer. But part of why such a strong perfume works is because it’s grounded in a superior base, with a mix of floral notes, leather and spice tea. In fact even well in excess of 100g burned, I still notice new elements of the incense, in fact I’m sitting here now going, yeah I think I get some of that ambery sandal too. Anyway, essential. In caps and boldface.

Shroff’s Nag Champa is interesting because it came out so close to the Dhuni version with so many similarities that they’re worth comparing, however Dhuni’s own brand has actually improved and changed enough that newer versions probably aren’t so comparable. Anyway Shroff’s entry is very traditional, almost definitive in some ways, although like Dhuni it’s a bit thicker than what you’ll find from Satya, Shantimalai etc. In fact the red box is probably a good comparison, but Shroff’s Nag Champa  is not as close to that as Happy Hari’s Gold Nag Champa because it’s so much drier. Shroff’s version also, unsurprisingly, bears the hallmarks of their brilliant perfuming skills, but it’s to the point that you end up thinking most of the aroma is carried by it, and let’s face it, a nag champa entirely succeeds or fails on its base. I do have to admit, I’m actually starting to get worn out by nag champas, largely because outside of Dhuni, I’ve yet to see any that haven’t managed to disguise off base notes or even sometimes the bamboo stick and while Shroff’s version manages to be really clever with the gentle plumeria-like scent on top, you need a much more resonant base to make me forget the formula is still missing something it used to have. On the other hand, I do think the Shroff version gets the scent to affordability ratio down perhaps better than any other version, so if you’re a fan looking to get away from Satya, this will be a good choice.

Next up: Ruby, Shanti, Shran, Super Star…

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March 2011 Top 10

April 5, 2011 at 11:03 am (Amber, Champa, Dhuni, Evergreen/Forest, Floral, India, Japan, Kyukyodo, Mike, Mint, Rose, Shroff Channabasappa, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibetan Medical College, Vetivert / Khus)

  1. Shroff Channabasappa/Wet Masala/Little Woods – Quite  simply this is one of the best Indian incenses you can buy. I think I’ve lost count how many sticks I’ve gone through at this point, there have been times where I’ll just burn one after the other. In fact I’ve been meaning to get to this latest and finest batch from Shroff, but haven’t found the time yet, but this one is described as containing fouger, rose, ambery sandal and oriental scents. It strikes a balance I can barely describe, but has an oil mix that’s extremely addictive.
  2. Shroff Channabasappa/Wet Masala/Darshan – This spearmint fronted work of magic could be interchangeable with Little Woods, as I’ve burned nearly as many sticks of this. This is an Indian incense I think almost everyone will like, it’s redolent of minty, spice cookies and very friendly.
  3. Kyukyodo/Musashino – Kyukyodo have a kyara and it’s a lot different from the dark and resinous kyaras you’ll find in, say, Shoyeido’s stable. In fact the first time I tried a stick it was difficult to describe because it has a lot of similarities with other Kyukyodo green sticks (Denpo for example) in that it’s kind of light and foresty. But once you get used to it and the green kyara note comes through, it becomes breathtaking. Like most kyaras it’s an expensive buy (given other Kyukyodo prices, my guess this would run $350 or so at 20 sticks if it was imported here) but in this case there’s really no other kyara like it.
  4. Meena Supreme – There’s an up and coming new company in Britain who’s set forth trying to import some incenses not generally seen outside of India and Meena Supreme was the first one (a more indepth review is forthcoming) I received. This was described to me with a hail of superlatives and has managed to live up to most of them. It’s a fluxo style incense, very thick and smokey with some earthiness in the background making it somewhat akin to Sai Flora. Quite frankly I’d have trouble describing the aroma even after going through two boxes of it, except to say it’s extremely addictive.
  5. Dhuni/Kashi (new version) – I’m not sure what’s going on in the Dhuni labs of late, but their latest care package was absolutely astounding despite there only being one true new scent. What else arrived was improved versions of three of their incenses. The new Kashi seems to increase the thickness and richness of the sticks. If you’ve ever tried Honey Dust or Vanilla or Satya Natural then you’ll know this scent, but I guarantee you’ve never smelled it at this level of luxuriousness. For me, it rejuvenated a scent I think I’d grown rather tired of.
  6. Dhuni/Special Amber (new) – The one stick sample of this I received is possibly the largest stick of Indian incense I’ve ever encountered, in fact I wondered if I could use it to defend myself. And bigger is better is definitely the case with this new version which seems to increase the content of the fine amber resins being used because at times this stick is like burning a fine resin mix, very sublime and much more balanced and measured than the original version (which was pretty great in its own right as it was). This is definitely one I’ll want to restock.
  7. Kyukyodo/Murasakino – It’s difficult to tell for sure, but other than the Musashino above, I’d probably put Murasakino at the top of the premium Kyukyodo aloeswood list. It comes in a variety of different boxes and packages but the silk roll in pawlonia box is probably the standard version. This is a potent, green aloeswood with that wonderful sharp acridity good wood always brings. And unlike Haru-no-yama, this is different enough from the Sho-Ran-Ko to make it feel not too duplicative.
  8. Dhuni/Khus – Much thanks to the Dhuni group for stocking me up on this utterly fine and fantastic vetivert champa. I had left a stick of this burning upstairs last night and remember just how incredible the aroma it left. Vetivert is often described as cooling, which isn’t something I always pick up in incenses it contains, but this one has absolutely nailed that vibe. This one’s an essential.
  9. Shroff Channabasappa/Ruby – I’m a little slower burning this one because I haven’t nabbed a 100g box yet and it took me a few sticks, but when it comes to the red colored, floral/rose type of champa, this one is the supreme version by a long way with a perfume intensity that’s unusual for this style. Very well rounded and gorgeous.
  10. Tibetan Medical College/Holy Land – What can I say that I already haven’t on this one. Still a staple around here and just polished off another box (third maybe?). In a class of its own.

34 Comments

New Shroffs

January 11, 2011 at 8:58 am (Administrative, Incense Notes/Samplers, India, Mike, Shroff Channabasappa)

Just wanted to put a few words and add a thread for the latest batch of Shroffs to come in through Essence of the Ages. I’m as thrilled with the new scents this time as I was disappointed by the last batch, there’s not a wet masala in this group that isn’t terrific. Darshan is like the most deluxe spice cookie, full of sugar, cinnamon and other sweet things. Drona’s mellower with quite a bit of caramel in the mix, very soft. Little Woods is like a more connoisseur version of the Woods incense we’ve discussed here, quite a bit deeper with a really great mix of wood oils. Their Nag Champa isn’t terribly far off from the Dhuni version recently discussed. The Ruby takes the wet masala format with a nice rosey top oil, one of the most successful versions of a red or pink colored champa I’ve seen. Shanti was absolutely amazing as well, although my memory of it and Sharan are a bit sketchier since it was late. Super Star, at least on the stick and by name, seems like a variant on Satya’s Super Hit, I suspect it will be a lot better. I also gave the Bakoor a small spin, it’s quite unique and seems charcoal based but definitely moves in an unusual bakhoor-like direction for a stick. Any comments or thoughts on these or older Shroffs can be added right here…

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