Golog Tibetan Incense

December 30, 2023 at 11:24 am (Agarwood / Aloeswood / Eaglewood, Cardamom, Incense, Mike, Red Sandalwood, Saffron, Sandalwood, Spice (Cinnamon Clove Nutmeg etc.), Tibet Autonomous Region)

Golog Tibetan Incense is “a mild, smooth vegetarian incense with intriguing subtleties. [it c]ontains Red and White Sandalwoods, Agarwood, Saussure involucrata, Rhodiola Rosea, Rhizome of Conic Gymnadenia [several of these last three look to be part of Tibetan traditional medicine or healing], Nutmeg, Saffron, Clove, Cardamon, Fructus Amomi [cardamom] and other precious ingredients.” This is obviously a huge list and it can be difficult in such a big list to even determine how some of these traditional ingredients fit together, but if you just follow the ones you know you’ll still have some idea of what area of Tibetan incense this roughly falls in. The incense comes in a nice sturdy cardboard tube, but one thing you notice after the handsome presentation and ingredient list is just what a mild incense this is at heart.

Falling under IT’s traditional therapeutic and relaxation category, it’s not hard to zero in on the agarwood and sandalwood in the mix as both woods are usually the basis of the general aroma in this sort of class. It means that there aren’t quite as many high altitude type trees and resins that usually invigorate or push the incense in a greener direction. However, it’s still quite cooling even with all the spices. You can easily get every one of these, the nutmeg and cardamom are definitely quite prominent on top, a pleasure if you like both of these like I do. I’m not sure any of these ingredients quite support what is a nice breadth to the incense, I would imagine the central, almost liquid-like note is a conglomerate of a whole number of things lost behind the secret recipe. But it’s definitely the kind of individual note that will go a long way with further experience, and it’s still something I haven’t fully settled on even half a dozen sticks. I think maybe the biggest factor I notice is this seems to be quite refined for a therapuetic incense, which may also be part of why this is in a higher price range than much of its class. I do find myself edging up just a little with each new experience, there’s something about its nutmeg content that kind of reminds me a little of brown ales, which is weirdly a metaphor I might be able to stick with for the overall incense.

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Aba Prefecture / Tibetan Sumati Incense, Sumati Calming Incense

December 27, 2023 at 11:02 am (Uncategorized)

In 2021 I reviewed the two, very premium Tibetan incenses from Aba Prefecture called Spirit of Shambhala and Agarwood Heart of Shambhala. These both came in boxes so beautifully done, I had mentioned elsewhere that I think I tend to go slower through these boxes to delay a decision on what I should do with these boxes as throwing them away isn’t an option. Not to mention they are extraordinary incenses as well. These two incenses, both with Sumati in the name, are much more on the other end of the spectrum, both relatively inexpensive and classified under the therapeutic and relaxation category at Incense Traditions, rather than Village, like the two premiums. I do think these distinctions are as important as these two are in a much milder class scent wise.

Tibetan Sumati Incense claims thirty different herbal substances on the cylinder as well as (or including) the saffron, agarwood and sandalwood listed at the Incense Traditions website. Like a lot of Tibetan incenses that fall under the rough therapeutic and relaxation category, there does seem to be something of a base of low-ish end aloeswood taking up quite a bit of the middle, which in incenses like this really does create a very relaxing vibe to it (for me its almost a hallmark of Tibetan healing incenses). Perhaps more surprisingly, the sandalwood is about as aromatic and as on top as you actually tend to get in Tibetan incenses, it’s a surprisingly nice note here. The saffron is there as well, but feels more like it’s on the same level or at least complementing other evergreen woods like, perhaps, juniper or cypress. But unlike a lot of other incenses, you end up having to get used to this somewhat resinous character to be in the middle of the mix rather than on top. If you’ve been burning louder incenses this one will take some adjustment to interact with its much milder character. Ultimately what it is like is a high-wood content incense that I’d call campfire if it wasn’t for the fact there are a lot of quality woods in this that prevent it from having any major off notes. It sort of sets a challenge for the user in that early sticks will be needed to adjust to the level where one might continue to notice how well it is put together after that. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t an incense designed to knock you out right away, it has an almost meditative stillness that is likely to be more of a companion-like quality than one drawing you forward. It’s unquestionably a work of art.

The Sumati Calming Incense would then be Aba Prefecture’s low end at the price, not to mention it doesn’t come in a cylinder or protective box. It’s actually a fairly similar incense to the one above in its base, but one thing I found really interesting comparing them is that the sandalwood nearly drops off on this one. I would have thought the agarwood would have as well, but it doesn’t seem to have moved much. The resins are also gone, leaving this largely to woods and herbs. The issue is that while this doesn’t have any real egregious faults, the largely woody base does center this around a campfire sort of scent, and while it never goes in too bitter or acerbic a direction, that strong sense of cheaper wood in the middle does overwhelm the herbs at times, or at least competes with them. I’ve found this to be true even moving in and out of the area of the burn. In the end it’s not one I’d bet on opening up with prolonged usage, it’s more like you get what you get. Strangely I never feel particularly calm with this one on, the woods in the center just seem too vigorous to allow that.

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Pushkar Temple / 50g / Baba Flora, Krishna Flora, Poonam Flora, Sunny Flora

December 24, 2023 at 10:47 am (Flora, Fluxo, Incense, India, Mike, Pushkar Temple Incense)

Pushkar Temple / 100g 1 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 2 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 3 of 3

So now we enter a larger group of incenses mostly sold in 50g packages. This is really where the Pushkar Temple Incense line finds a lot of its fantastic incenses so there are a lot of good scents to share. This is the first of six installments in this part and the first breakdown carries over from the 100g series in that this is another group of scents all titled as floras and nearly all are big step ups from the 100g floras.

Baba Flora is an orange-stick variant of the Sai Flora. But where the Sai Flora was kind of unbalanced and loud, the Baba is more refined and less likely to have your sense of smell bouncing around trying to resolve conflicts. You can sense the same sort of flora mix meeting scents of citrus and blueberry, but this dials all of it down a lot. Think of it maybe as the Diet Sai Flora with all that sugar bounce reduced. Part of this moves it in a direction that is a lot harder to suss out specific scents but it’s a much friendlier incense if you don’t want to be overwhelmed, as the volume reduction has made it much sleeker and smoother. And it may just be me but this feels like there’s a little bit more musk of some sort in the mix, an ingredient that often feels like part of floras but not as obvious. It also has a bit of a spicy middle in the cinnamon/clove region, to make it a bit warmer for a flora. So there’s a feeling that around the edges it’s a little more decadent than the most obvious perfumes, yet the overall aroma is perhaps just short of distinctive to push it into a greater tier. You end up sacrificing some of the distinctiveness to get the balance.

Krishna Flora is also an orange-colored stick that looks very similar to the Baba Flora, but this is a different kind of stick indeed, much more subtle and attractive than the blaring perfume mixes usually found as floras. This is a lovely mix that seems to have something like a milder orange or neroli oil (maybe some lavender too) combined with flora aspects as well as a very subtle licorice hint (maybe occasionally) that reminds me of the heyday of great incenses (such as the old Maharaj or Maharaja stick from Mystic Temple/Incense from India). It doesn’t lose the feeling of there being some floral middle either so all of this ties into a great and complex, yet dry and not too sweet bouquet. It is however a bit air freshener, which isn’t too much of a surprise given the notes, but at least it’s not overwhelming or irritating and there are plenty of pleasant aromatics to offset it enough. Definitely recommended and I can imagine it’s a blend that might be new to your nose.

The Poonam Flora, an actual orange masala with a normal bamboo stick, is one of the line’s absolute classics. I’m so used to these orange-colored Indian masalas being saffron based, champas or otherwise, but when I used to see something similar, I would first always think of those orange cream popsicles you’d get from an ice cream truck. So now here’s a new one that looks like those and actually does smell quite like those orange cream popsicles if you can imagine those as kind of dry and more incense than summer treat. (As a side note, I’m pretty sure we dug one of these up in our Vedic Vaani research that was in one of the collections, meaning it was unlikely a reorder would be repeatable.) So this is really nothing like the other floras in the catalog, it smells almost like what orange kool-aid or drink mix powder would smell like with a slight bit of creaminess to it. Definitely has the orange citrus scent, so it makes you wonder why incense companies can never get that right in a pure charcoal. I looked Poonam Flora up on line some months back and saved this (unofficial?) description: “Yellow amber, unlike ambergris, is the result of a blend of a type of resin, vanilla and patchouli resulting in a sweet, slightly dry scent. Saffron has a spicy scent but with a leathery, even tarry side. In any case, perfumes that include saffron are certainly perfumes of character.” I don’t smell much in the way of saffron or patchouli in this although they certainly could be embedded in the mix, not to mention saffron is almost ubiquitous in orange-colored masalas, but the spice you usually get with it seems to be missing. Anyway, as you might have surmised by now, this is something of a classic, an incense style that should be much better known than it is.

Sunny Flora turns to a red-colored masala and has a wonderful sort of candy, floral bubble gum scent that pops from the fresh bundle. So this puts it fairly well in line with most red sticks that look like this except that this doesn’t really have anything in the way of rose specifically, the florals instead feel something a little less specific and much harder to pick out. I say bubble gum because some red sticks like this just have something aromatic that reminds me of gum, jawbreakers/gobstoppers, Sweet Tarts and the like (the powder that makes up drinks like Kool Aid), these are possibly all things I associate with the sugary and aromatized. Sunny Flora is definitely a very sweet mix with maybe a very small amount of fruitiness or tartness somewhere in the middle. There’s maybe a touch of cherry but compared to others of this ilk it’s kind of quieter rather than all over the scent. The whole thing is really quite Western friendly, I’d imagine if you like a quality floral this also should be on the shopping list.

Next installment we’ll move to the line’s oud/agarwood scents as well as another favorite from the line.

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Drigung Long Incense

December 21, 2023 at 3:34 pm (Drigung Monastery, Incense, Mike, Tibet Autonomous Region)

Drigung’s main incense was in my top 10 personal Tibetan incense chart for quite a while, but it was my understanding that it was discontinued by Incense Traditions due to the fragility of the stick (you will notice the warning on this one as well), stock was just not making the journey without damage. So with this sort of in the background of my head I had noticed there was a “long” in the IT catalog, but in some fit of malfeasance, I thought this was just a long version of the main incense (which begs the question of why I didn’t start stocking it!) and forgot about it. A friend reminded me some time later of it after he bought some and noted how different it was to the main brand. So at that point it went right back on the buy list. Please note in the picture that I only took it with one stick because the initial bundle comes packed really tightly and given the fragility issue I didn’t want to risk breakage removing and putting back several.

This is indeed an extremely different incense, in fact if you thought they came from two different monasteries I wouldn’t be surprised. For one thing Drigung Long Incense does not have the usual monastery swank of the main line, it is actually not that kind of incense at all. It concentrates much more on a mix of strong evergreen and wood tendencies (could be juniper, cypress or pine, a mix or something else) with an equally powerful herbal level (much more difficult to guess at). I love its fresh and vibrant front scent, it’s very much a sort of wood mix with a sweet edge and a nice Himalayan high-altitude touch. The interaction on this level with all the herbs in the mix is also extremely impressive, it almost feels like there are dozens of ways that they do, which makes it something of an endless treat. I sense a bit of a light spice in there as well, which could very well be the woods or some mix of sandalwoods, but it sorts of acts like a balance to the herbal tang that floats in and around the aroma. Overall the feeling of cool and fresh really pervades this incense, so it’s not hard at all to recommend it, especially as there’s nothing quite like it. It’s almost as if a monastery decided to do something that verged Nepali a bit.

So yeah two very different Drigung incenses, both quite extraordinary and I sure hope the brothers figure out how to hang their sticks together for exportation, either one of these would be missed!

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Dimension 5 / Floral Neural / Floral Neural, Elixir, X-Botanica

December 18, 2023 at 8:17 am (Dimension 5, Incense, Mike)
Tags: , , , ,

So first a disclaimer, Josh Matthews of Dimension 5 and I have been friends since he started sharing his incense art with me a couple of years back. I mention this up front in reviews now because not only was he good at creating incenses when he got started but he gets better as he goes and this means my enthusiasm for his new work is also increasing. Any new package received I practically stop and dip in a bit before taking pictures and reviewing. If this counts as a bias then I’m owning up.

Dimension 5 is one of the most interesting niches in incense, because it’s made by someone who starts with fine and rare ingredients across the board who then attempts to creatively generate stick incenses of similar quality. The incenses are correspondingly and quite fairly priced given the ingredients, but keep in mind as well that only in the highest end Japanese sticks will there be anything close to what you’ll experience here and in a side by side what Josh uses is often better. The sticks are shorter and often (not always) will burn fairly fast and this is considered a fair trade-off for maximum scent impact.

His new grouping, which I don’t think is entirely complete yet – there’s another incense or two to come I believe – is Dimension 5’s first venture into floral incenses. I’m sure you’ve read here that a lot of inexpensive florals aren’t great incenses, often they’re synthetic or approximate, whether it’s like a charcoal Indian floral or some of the low-end Japanese florals. But I think a lot of those who feel this way are equally impressed with a good floral when it’s done right. Dimension 5’s florals are great florals, extremely well done but they also incorporate woods and animalics and these interact with the floral notes in ways much cheaper florals don’t even approach. These are very upscale, at first they are almost a blitkrieg to the senses as your brain tries to cope with not only the quality involved but the way everything is carefully crafted to be complex and interactive. So it has to be noted here that even though I tend to write much more about these sorts of incenses, there is so much going on here that I can’t really cover everything with the few sticks I review (I end up having to hold one or two back as well!)

Floral Neural is both the first incense on the list and also the name of the floral collection it’s a part of. The ingredients listed are tuberose, plumeria, Italian jasmine, Vietnamese agarwood, Papua agarwood,
sandalwood, clove, deer musk and ambergris. It’s an exceedingly complex incense with so much going on it feels like one’s attention is constantly moving from one interaction to another. These ingredients are strategically placed here to do so, in my impression you are dealing with a combination floral note, the woods, the mix of animalics, and then a touch of spice, but each of them interact with each other in ways that is intensely stimulating to the senses. I had just reviewed the Pushkar Temple Tuberose before this package came in (I’ll add the link when it’s published, it’s a bit later in the series), and while comparing the two did underline the similarities, the other florals in here also play a part, you actually could probably spend a lot of time just talking about these three. The tuberose is thus fairly recognizable. The plumeria (aka frangipani) imparts a lot of the sweeter floral notes (the tuberose is a little more robust). I also feel like Josh is being judicious with the jasmine oil, it seems to play out of the edges. The combination is intriguing, it’s as if you get buttery notes as a composite which immediately fractalize into a number of high resolute floral notes as soon as you focus.

The way the woods and the florals interact in this one remind me of a lot of Minorien’s Chrysanthemum (probably, because there are few floral incenses like this on the market, I’m not even sure I can think of another) and nowhere along the burn do you forget either one is there. If the florals get your immediate attention, then it will often shift to how these woods play in the background, partially because they are such high quality. The animalics feel a bit more to the back, I didn’t notice them right away, but you won’t be able to miss them, and they interact with both the woods and florals in a way that is surprising and latent. I really love the delicate ambergris touch on this one, it’s not a scent that will be apparent right away but it certainly mixes with the woods in a familiar way and broadens the overall aroma. In fact if I had any concerns about this scent at all it’s that it’s simply one of the most complex incenses I think I’ve ever come across and the burn time is relatively short, which may make you feel like your new discovery ends up being a cliffhanger.

After Floral Neural, Elixir really goes for the direct impression. I’d imagine if it could be manufactured on a larger level then I’d probably spend a few weeks just burning it alone. You can smell the quality of the oils used directly from the fresh stick. The first three floral ingredients go a lot to making this incredible front-end work so well, although I would assume some of the animalics (deer musk, ambergris, and hyraceum) in here play a part in that as well, albeit more subtly. These, Bulgarian rose, Italian neroli and orange blossom, all sort of merge into such a brilliant mix that I found myself instantly addicted. I don’t quite know how to describe it except I kept getting the word “hive” and there was this amazing black currant-like note in the mix that won me over instantly, it’s something in the way the rose and orange-like oils mix that does it. This also moves towards a front scent like a cornucopia of berries in there, and then at times the florals take over without any of these notes. I’m not sure how much Bulgarian rose Josh used here but it has magnificent impact and it’s enough where the resolution of the petals kind of dances in the background (and occasionally the foreground) as if the neroli and orange blossom are as judiciously applied as not to smother it. The (2 types of) agarwood and sandalwood here are quite spicy together and so if the front-end kind of weaves its way around, it is always revealing facets of the deep woody mix below (one never forgets that the agarwoods used in these incenses are often way above those used in mainline Japanese incenses these days quality wise). The touches of spikenard, benzoin, and vanilla can also be detected although so many of these ingredients merge into this woody spice bottom that it continually makes your attention ping back and forth from the florals, it almost feels like you’d need a second batch to even explore more where these fall. Overall, Elixir is one of Josh’s masterpieces (although I’d admit I’d probably have a tough time choosing my top five) and one of the best new incenses I’ve tried all year.

The Nippon Kodo Kayuragi Osmanthus made quite an impression on me years ago in that I didn’t know osmanthus at all at that point, so it was nice to try something with such a distinct and less common floral note. But it also reminds me that picking out florals is a lot harder without an ingredients list. With X-Botanica, osmanthus is paired with carnation for the incense’s floral front end and it’s the kind of combination I’ve never seen before but should have been so inevitable really. As I got used to this I actually started thinking of it as being somewhat like the Floral Neural but wound a bit more tightly like the Elixir. Of the three incenses here, I think this floral mix is the most dominant in terms of really keeping your attention on that top end, even though the wood and animalics do so much to the depth of it, they are so well placed to just teach you the intertwining of these two really beautiful floral scents. I particularly loved how even if the top end felt stronger on the osmanthus end, there were glorious carnation notes that worked on a slightly more subtle level, when those come out it’s like look out.

I’ve mentioned before that Dimension 5 incenses are the sort of thing you sit with and pay attention to, so of course what do I do during the second stick of this? Get distracted for a second to do something else. Thankfully it was short, but when I got back to my seat I was like wow what is that, that’s amazing (giving me the couple seconds early in the morning to catch up). I love when this happens with a lot of inexpensive incenses but despite not wanting it to happen with something this premium, I’m kind of glad because it’s a good way of being reminded how utterly arresting something like this is, how high resolution and complex this array of ingredients is. The non-floral ingredients in this are Thai agarwood, cinnamon, muskrat, Hyraceum and Castoreum, which shows Josh’s skill on the animalics end because I probably couldn’t tell you much about the specifics of each of these ingredients except that they almost caress and cajole the florals here in ways that speak to their strengths.

Anyway for Dimension 5 incenses, I should mention I usually review after three sticks, the first one is because I nearly tear the box open and go through everything excitedly right away (usually splitting the stick into a couple of burns). Then I start the reviews with a second stick and get my basic thoughts down as a framework. Then I refine things and finish up with the third stick (or a bit more if necessary). I do want to say I’m more comfortable doing this with these incenses than with others simply because I don’t think there’s any amount of Dimension 5 sticks that would actually finalize my thoughts, because the game they set up of interlocking and complex scents will always bring up new facets and highlights, and you have to finish at some point.

We’ve seen what Dimension 5 can do with sandalwood, various agarwoods, kyara and now florals and absolutely all of them speak to the careful laboratory process at work here, these are incenses that have to satisfy Josh first before they make their way out into the world. There are more coming as well, Josh has mentioned new florals, new kyaras and forays into conifers, so he’s always busy creating. I am confident these would satisfy the most discerning of incense connoisseurs (and please, if you have tried these, consider leaving some comments here about them). If interested in purchasing, contact Josh at dimension5incense@gmail.com for pricing and information. Josh also talks about his incenses at www.instagram.com/dimension_5_incense.



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Incense Reviews Index Updated

December 15, 2023 at 11:23 am (Administrative, Mike)

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the Incense Reviews Index is finally caught up and current as of today’s review. If you’re not familiar with this page, which you can also access six links down on the top left, it sorts all the reviews, all the way back to the beginning of ORS by country, and then manufacturer/creator, and is one of the easiest ways to find a review of an incense you’re looking for. As always if you know of any errors, broken links etc, please do post in the comments.

The second level of this which I try to do occasionally is to go through things and mark discontinued items. This can be a bit more difficult and is probably not up to speed in some areas, but I will try to get to this as time allows. Happy Holidays to all our readers!

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Lopen Tandin Dorji Poizo Khang / (Sung Sung Quality)

December 15, 2023 at 7:50 am (Bhutan, Incense, Lopen Tandin Dorji Poizo Khang, Mike)

I have reviewed a number of different incenses in different shapes and sizes from the Bhutanese company Lopen Tandin Dorji Poizo Khang and there’s actually quite a bit of variety in their line, especially from a country with a fairly traditional and even somewhat static incense style. However, there is perhaps no finer incense in their catalog than this Sung Sung Quality incense.

Very few Bhutanese incenses would be what I call perfume heavy, but there is a really profound oil or perfume mix that fronts this one, it’s much deeper than any other Bhutanese stick I can think of. It is something of an accentuation of notes that are part of the main Bhutanese red stick formula and that you’ll find in many others (I’d click on Bhutan on the left, there’s really way too many to name here). In many of these incenses I will mention both the cherry and sandalwood notes and these feel really turned up in the Sung Sung, in fact there’s a feeling that this is about the loudest sandalwood ever gets in a Tibetan style stick, which is no mean feat. The cherry could just as easily be read as raspberry with it turned up like this, but any individual fruit idiosyncracies would be covered by a very nice cinnamon mix in the middle (something the sandalwood interacts with quite nicely). It all sort of combines together in a way that is really smooth and easy on the nose, particularly by the time you’re mid way through a burn. One might get even more out of something like this if you’re coming from another Bhutanese red (or purple) stick in comparison, because the intensity change is so obvious. Definitely a worthy pick up especially for its price range, it’s not only a friendly introduction to the style, but it should surprise those who have already tried a few incenses from this country.

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Pushkar Temple Incense / 100g / Anant Flora, Chandan Flora, Sai Flora, Shashank Flora, Vinayak Flora

December 12, 2023 at 8:23 am (Flora, Fluxo, Incense, India, Pushkar Temple Incense, Uncategorized)

Pushkar Temple / 100g 1 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 2 of 3

So the final group of the Pushkar Temple incenses packaged as 100g bundles are all floras. Those familiar with the style will notice they have a Sai Flora, which in many ways is the most well-known/popular flora known in Indian incense through the dark red package that shows up nearly everywhere (I used to think this was something like second in popularity to blue box Nag Champa). Many floras, even outside of PT will have orange-dipped bamboo sticks and certainly PT’s Sai Flora and a few others do as well. Floras are generally highly perfumed mixes of so many elements it is almost impossible to parse them separately in an aroma, but it’s probably safe to say they are mostly mixes of florals and often fruits.

Anant Flora has the fruits fairly up front, I mean right away you can get some pear and apple in the front mix. So it is unquestionably a friendly blend right away. I suspect some floral oils are in here matching those notes, although it’s difficult to tell what they are. But while I can often think many incenses have a citrus-like note, Anant Flora is definitely more of like a fruit salad sort of note, with not even a touch of orange, lemon or lime. There is definitely a sense of some perfume in the background but this is all gently applied. There is also a really strong aromatic that I tend to sense in something like cherry bubble gum. I’m not too sure of many incenses that get as western friendly as this one, there seems little in the way of indigenous Indian herbs and flowers here that I know of. So maybe a simple answer is this is like a fruit salad bubble gum scent. Mind you these types of scents aren’t exactly in my own wheelhouse, but given how some of these elements can often come with strange notes, it is a little surprising they’re missing here. If you like fruitier/champa like mixes (this one’s also a bit halmaddi-squishy), you’d want to check this one out, just don’t expect this to be anything but generically friendly.

The Chandan Flora does take some aspects from the Mysore Chandan I reviewed last installment but it’s also really different while still landing somewhere in the flora area. It actually does still have something of a woody center, although like I mentioned before this woodiness seems more overlapping with sandalwood than having any actual sandalwood note that stands out and it tends to submerge into the rest of the bouquet. It has the same sort of interesting confectionary note mixed with that strange chandan creaminess, but outside of that all of these sweet aspects seem to sort of strangely merge into the florals. It has quite a bit of vanilla in the mix which sort of evokes something like ice cream, sherbet or a mix of both. There also feels like a lot of honey, even honeycomb and then a strange, toasted note floating in the middle that reminds me a little of that smell you get after someone gets a perm. It is quite a strange mix of elements for sure, definitely not a chandan in the classic sense, but more like a remix of those elements shuffled into something new. It’s not what I’d call a traditional flora so much, but it definitely has some aspects of them and, in the end, I don’t know if I’ve tried anything quite like this before, so it’s pretty fascinating. I do very much like the sort of toasted sugary vanilla that is central to it and when this comes out in full force it’s a very attractive incense.

Pushkar’s Sai Flora is actually close to the King of Vrindavan incense that Absolute Bliss carried for a while which is basically the Vedic Sai Flora. Noting the blueberry content really opened this formula up for me (Stephen pointed this out to me some time ago) and I far prefer it over the red packaged Sai Flora, an incense that used to be excellent but is more of a loud perfume bomb now. Pushkar’s version is something of a lateral move to the Vedic version but it’s still somewhat similar. I’m not sure if it’s quite as refined, it’s more as if some of the familiar aspects are reshuffled in level. In this version there’s almost like a fresh orange squeeze to it in addition to a mix of florals that is fairly hard to parse, mostly because it is all very loud. I contrast my impressions that this much orange can be overwhelming (olibanum? neroli? orange blossom?) and a little bit citrus-sour with a wonder what it would be like just to sense this element on its own. Overall, I feel like the heaviness of this blend can be mitigated just by giving it a bit of room to disperse, for example I found that I liked it more in my burning spot upstairs compared to either place I might burn it downstairs – a little room is helpful. Having experienced at least a half dozen of these sticks, I still am not entirely sure where I fall with it, largely because I definitely like some of what’s going on while perhaps feeling like I’m struggling to find a balance in it.

I’m not even sure I’d consider Shashank Flora a flora at least in the sense that it doesn’t bear any high volume of floral oils, in fact it seems to be more of a modest sandalwood vanilla mix, a sweetened combination one is likely to find more often under a description of a champa. In that sense after the previous two blasts of fruits and florals its modesty is actually quite an attraction (a Shashank Redemption if you will). I burned something like four sticks of this just hovering over this review because I wanted to say more, but really the combination of oils and ingredients only give it something like a mild confectionary feel to it, a bit toffee or something, and not a lot more. At the very edge there feels like maybe another wood in the mix and maybe a light touch of patchouli, all of which keeps a good part of the bouquet feeling a bit dry. It is a very friendly blend though, super easy to get into but definitely not as complex or as loud as most floras are.

The Vinayak Flora is a strange hybrid of loban and flora qualities, in fact you’d probably have to be a fan of lobans to even start with this one. Unfortunately, the mix of florals on top of this tends towards the soapy, so even though the mix has Sai Flora-like qualities, the hints of blueberries and orange feel a bit lost in the mix (if there at all, the similarity is a bit vaguer). The florals and resins don’t match up well, particularly with this stick having the sort of gravel-like tendencies most lobans have in the background. I was actually surprised I didn’t notice a lot of this until I did the review. Before this I had most of the year to cycle these and I made note of the florals being closer to geranium or other pseudo-rose scents and I do pick that up still a bit. The bottom line is that there are a few issues that cause some bitterness or sourness to the overall mix and this basically overwhelms anything positive about it.

Next up we’ll move to the 50g packages, which is where the lion’s share of the better Pushkar Temple incenses exist…

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Good Incense / Gold, Patchouli, Rose, Saffron, Vetiver + notes on other fragrances

December 9, 2023 at 4:17 pm (Good Incense, Halmaddi / Mattipal, Incense, India, Mike, Patchouli, Rose, Saffron, Vetivert / Khus)

I hadn’t put it together right away in my head, but Good Incense is something of a sister imprint to Bhagwan Incense. It seems from looking at the site that Good Incenses are more affordably priced by comparison to Bhagwan, they don’t come in the fancy boxes and are just simply presented in wrappers. But there are honestly a lot of nice incenses in this line as well, including a trend of similarly constructed incenses that present a different tradition to what I have experienced in other Indian exports. It’s a line that intrigues me quite a bit, definitely quality but not having the hallmarks of incenses more commonly seen in the west; it’s the kind of trend you hope for.

The first of these we’ll discuss is the Gold. The only clues we have are halmaddi and sweet floral notes but this is an incense that has an intriguing almost root-like nip at the top of the bouquet. It’s similar to ways I have seen patchouli or vetivert used in some incenses and it’s a note I’ve always liked a lot personally, it’s kind of green-banana in a way. There is also some level of an herb like tobacco in the mix. This is of course all grounded in a very friendly charcoal-masala mix with a lot of breadth in the middle. You can smell the halmaddi for sure, but the stated florals are too much of a mix to really identify anything specific from, but they certainly play an important component in that breadth. So overall this is a very unique incense, it’s the kind of thing you want to share with friends just to get their take on it as it’s sort of like a friendly incense modified in a slightly unique direction. I continue to remain really fascinated with it, it really keeps you on your toes.

The Good Incense Patchouli looks to be fairly close to a dusted charcoal as a style. It would not surprise me at all if this was Madhavadas sourced as there’s a lot of vanilla and sandalwood coming off the burn. Vanilla often seems fairly comfortable next to patchouli for some reason, it’s not a match I’d make on my own, but it often works as it does here. In my recent Asayu review I talked about patchouli variations to hopefully give some idea where I sit with the scent as a whole. The more premium, essential oil heavy sticks with it tend to fatigue me (probably because living in California I used to come across people wearing the oil as an aromatic), so this match-up of a more leaf-oriented scent and the vanilla/sandalwood base fronting an oil that’s a bit greener than your average essential oil is probably a bit closer to my personal preferences. That is, the greener a patchouli is the better. So not only does this hit that spot but it’s also variant from other Indian sticks that are roughly in the same region. The herb will always fall somewhere in the middle for me, I like a good one but I’ll likely come more across it in reviews than looking for it myself if that makes sense.

I’ve probably walked out my story about walking through Sacramento’s Capitol Rose Garden a dozen times by now, and I do because it sets a sort of basis for how I perceive rose. And I don’t mean something like a deep Bulgarian rose absolute or something more expensive and premium, I just mean that it’s a measure for getting what a bunch of roses smell like walking between them. I bring this up because the Good Incense Rose is shockingly good at getting this smell dead on. You’re not even just getting a general rose-direction floral scent here, it actually does smell a lot like actual roses, which is no mean feat given the costs it would take to make this actually happen. Sure it’s a little sweet and there does indeed seem to be some halmaddi here, but all this does is just give a bit of comfort and backing to the floral scent. Compared to all of the pink stick mixes across various companies, this actually comes across as being slightly more authentic and true to the actual scent. 15g at 3 euros for this is a deep bargain, I can’t even think of a deal anywhere close to this for this particular scent. I might add that this strikes me as being the same lineage as the Balsamic Amber and Gold so it’s equally as intriguing in that sense.

And to add to that lineage is a very nice Saffron Masala. This has what I might call the most on point saffron scent in an incense that one can imagine, bereft of the kind of additions you usually find with it. The caveat as always is an ingredient as rare as this doesn’t really have essential oils you can fuel an incense with but creators of it usually have something that smells like the herb that still works really nicely. In many ways it’s just the clarity of this that’s so attractive, while there’s a charcoal-halmaddi-masala base that helps to broaden the incense’s aroma (this base works really well in all of this lineage’s sticks), it doesn’t detract from this nice spicy top mix. I often find myself searching for the saffron note in an incense, it’s nice to find a masala that makes it really obvious, not to mention quite simple on top. If you like saffron this is a no-brainer. It actually gives me a little nostalgia of how saffron smelled in the incenses of the 90s.

Vetiver (vetivert) feels like a different lineage altogether and is a very interesting dry masala with a few different notes. I wouldn’t even think of vetivert being a holiday sort of scent but the way this brings out mint and foresty notes constantly reminds me of that sort of thing, neither are notes I tend to associate with most vetivert incenses but they sometimes even pop from the fresh stick. And so even though this stick has more familiar sorts of vetivert notes, it has a much broader palette which tends to send the nose out searching along the burn. Vetivert usually seems to have deeper rooty or earthy sort notes which I mentally file closer to patchouli and for sure this sort of dry masala has some similarities to patchouli dry masalas as well. But vetivert can also tend to grassy and more citrus like notes and so the more earthy part of the scent seems more like its bunched up in the middle, while these other notes play off the base in strange and unique ways. The description includes halmaddi, but in this case its presence is probably pretty minor. Overall I do think this is a cool experience for sure. I wouldn’t have considered a more earthy, rooty scent to base something almost brighter and more high altitude but it’s part of what makes this an interesting incense. It’s likely to stretch one’s own interpretation of what vetivert can do.

Some of the other Good Incenses I tried didn’t fare as well. In all of my incense exploring life I’ve never understood why Red Sandalwood is prized as an aromatic; however, putting it in a stick on its own isn’t likely to move all but the most eccentric of us. This one just smells like dull campfire wood to me, but to be fair I’ve never tried a Red Sandalwood that made me feel otherwise. The Golden Sandal is simply neither, it doesn’t even do wood and furniture polish particularly well. Mystifyingly the sandalwood in the Sandalwood Saffron can be smelled just a smidge on the fresh stick too, but overall feels a bit of a chemical mess in the burn and ultimately neither. Both of these I’d take to task with original exporter, unfortunately in the West this is the kind of thing the importer has to either absorb as costs or hope to thin stock in the catalog, maybe something a lot of readers are not particularly aware of. One feels that Benzoin Supreme may be of similar provenance to these in that it has a similar chemical or perfume finish, but at least the scent lands somewhere in the ballpark as if the resin end was refined to some end – it’s not even that bad once it gets a cloud about it, although you never do lose the chemical note in the background behind it.

I had better hopes for Sambrani. It is described as “[a] delightful herbal, menthol, mineral, floral, and vanilla scent.” I don’t have any problem with that other than the first adjective, as the extreme bitterness of the burn pretty much overwhelms everything about this mix to an eye-watering distraction. Menthol’s a tough call in incense and here a lot of its better attributes are left to an edge around the shocking remains of the rest of it. You almost have to recover after burning even a little of it. As a contrast, Summer Bouquet is just a sort of fruity floral mix and definitely not a bad incense at all, in fact I started liking it a bit more on later burns. Its supposedly made from Mt Arunachala flowers and seems to have that more natural yet maybe slightly-not-perfect burn of actual floral material rather than a lot of perfumes. It kind of hovers a bit around a harvest-like plum or grapes sort of scent. Like a lot of florals that verge fruity it’s probably not terribly memorable, but I would imagine some liking this for sure.

Both Bhagwan Incense and Good Incense have a lot I haven’t covered so do look around the catalogs a bit, the incenses come from a number of different Indian companies, and so many of these can be surprises. I understand from Eugene that this stock is just the beginning!

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Samye Chimpu Incense

December 6, 2023 at 8:20 am (Incense, Mike, Tibet Autonomous Region)

Samye Chimpu incense (with a wee label made by me so I know what it is) is made by an unnamed nunnery after a sacred site 16 kilometers from Samye Monastery. I was reminded of when Dzogchen Monastery’s Brilliant Gem was imported that often additional incenses from the same monastery (or in this case maybe just a shared name) can be startlingly different from their main brand, and in this case Samye Chimpu is definitely different from Samye Monastery’s flagship no matter what vintage you have. In my mind it’s almost something of a contrast. Samye Monastery’s incense I wouldn’t even necessarily say is meant to be exactly the same incense from year to year, it differs quite a bit every time I order it, but at least it’s always very good. It is however often fairly similar to some of the other wonderful nunnery incenses that Incense Traditions provide while this one is actually not all that similar to any other nunnery incense I’ve sampled. Such intrigue….

Where Samye Monastery is always dense, complex, and rich, Samye Chimpu is a much simpler affair sticking largely to a woody/evergreen sort of mix, without any of the deep musk or amber notes of the flagship. It absolutely has a prevalent high altitude resin content in the mix (both from tree wood and likely resin like frankincense) and has the kind of base that you will often see in incenses that include white and red sandalwood. It is not a spectacular, dangerous or even massively complex incense, and despite its high campfire sort of content, the overall bouquet is actually surprisingly soft and deceptively intricate. The sticks seem to burn a bit faster than incenses with heavy woods in them as well, and I sense a bit of an herbal mix that reminds me just a touch of burning leaves, maybe some rhododendron or saffron and undoubtedly a few things I’ve never tried on their own. But it’s also one of those incenses that generates its smell largely outside of the burning stick itself, which is always a neat thing and in particular that herb and high altitude resin mix really comes out in the environmental range rather than if you were to waft the smoke closely. So it’s very possible that this is a slow burner, not something that reveals exactly what it does in early sticks. It urges you to pay attention to its unfolding. Even after something like half a dozen sticks, I keep waiting for this to pull a rabbit out of its hat, because it tends to fool my expectations and scramble my notes a bit. One burn it will be all woody, the next I’m wondering why I missed all the resin content. I imagine this is yet another incenses in the monastery category I’ll like even more long after this review is posted.

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