Readers may remember my post some months back asking for someone who might be able to help sell what remained of Corey Topel’s (Absolute Bliss & Happy Hari) incense stock prior to his passing. I’m very happy to report that Patrick from Roots & Vine/Everest Trader has bought the collection and is currently working through it to put up for sale. I was really pleased how this worked out for both sides, I’m not sure if it could have ended up in better hands. I should be able to report in more detail on what will be up for sale in the near future, but for now any interested inquiries can be sent to rootsandvine@gmail.com. There’s quite a bit of incense so it may take a bit to go through it and get it all ready. So stay tuned for news!
Pushkar Temple / 50g / Pakiza, Saraswati, Swami, Swastik
March 6, 2024 at 4:56 pm (Incense, India, Mike, Pushkar Temple Incense)
Pushkar Temple / 100g 1 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 2 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 3 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 50g 1 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 2 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 3 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 4 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 5 of 6
So today we wrap up, for now, the Pushkar Temple 50g packages with the latter half of the group of incenses without any clue as to their aroma or provenance. In fact it just sort of worked out that this was the group I had the hardest time pinpointing, as all are rather obscure mixes.
Pakiza is a sort of red color in a darker direction, delineating it from the bright color reds that tend to be more in the rose or fruit vein. Pakiza is more of a milder, spicy and slightly fruity blend. Although dragon’s blood incenses can be hard to identify if you don’t know that’s what they are (often because the resin can be rather dull or generic), this one seems sort of in the ballpark with a head that’s quite friendly. Keep in mind I’m doing a bit of guesswork here, I wouldn’t put money on this being a dragon’s blood incense, but it’s remotely in that area, say, if you’ve tried a Temple of Incense, Absolute Bliss or Bhagwan dragon’s blood incense. Overall, this really has some sort of candle-like cinnamon and apple like mix at the top. That means it does have a bit of that almost crayon-like scent that implies some sort of mock perfume in the mix (I hesitate to say synthetic in a day where natural ingredients are used in labs to piece together scents, but I think you probably get my drift). I’m not sure it gets up to the level where it’s irritating, but the issue is if you’re scenting your environment, it builds up quite a bit nonetheless. And in the end while I’m still OK with this one, I wonder if more exposure might actually take this down a notch for me. But I’ve been through half a dozen or more sticks of this and would place it maybe in the middle of this whole range quality wise.
Saraswati has an orange stick which puts me in mind of the large amount of floras the Pushkar Temple line has, but this is probably too mild an aroma to put in that category. And that’s really the issue, it’s that this is likely to remind you of some of the floras I reviewed earlier except with much less power. It’s a mild mix of vanilla and florals that still veers in a slightly sharp or sour direction (think orange maybe) that pulls the rug out from its mildness, leaving one with a slightly uncomfortable feeling. It is possible the least distinctive incense in the whole catalog, in the sense that it’s probably hard to come up with a lot of reasons for what I like or dislike, instead just leaving me a little unsettled. Unfortunately, when given a mix of a sort of friendly and powdery vanilla powder along with a weird and slight off floral note, you’re going to end up thinking of the latter side of the equation more. Of course, if you end up loving the florals in this range then you may not want to leave this one off your list.
Swami actually doesn’t look all that different from the Saraswati. I think this is also going for a milder sort of incense, but at least in this case it feels more successful. It also feels like a vanilla floral mix but here the floral is much different. I’m not even sure what it is except it leans floral-herbal, but at least it’s not supplying any uncomfortable notes. It also feels like there is some woodiness in the mix which I’m sure helps it from getting too bogged down with floral perfumes. So even though I wouldn’t call this a great incense, it’s not a bad one either. Maybe what’s sort of interesting to me is there’s something in this that reminds me of the medicinal, you know like if you brought out a big first aid kit and I’m not sure where that’s coming from. It may be a touch of eucalyptus or something similar. I badly want to pick out camphor as well, but can’t truly justify it, but there is something almost minty in the background. It’s different for sure and not unpleasant at all. The line has some unbalanced incenses but I think Pushkar Temple managed to avoid one here.
And finally at the very end there’s the Swastik. Yep, I know. It’s still strange to me the Western and Eastern divide on this symbol particularly when you’re dealing with a floral incense that seems to have something like a mix of ylang ylang and geranium. This blend brings a tiny bit of lemon to the mix although it’s definitely not overwhelming, and like the previous two incenses a healthy amount of vanilla, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the base of some of these incenses. Overall it’s a very pretty floral, quite a bit different to some of the extreme floras in this line and possibly one that could be easily overlooked. But I really like its sort of soft-petalled nature as it’s so strikingly different to most of the other florals in the line. It actually reminds me more of the kind of thing Nippon Kodo does in some of its modern lines.
In summary there’s a lot to like in the Pushkar Temple line and one hopes we will see some new aromas imported in the future. It presents a range that’s quite a bit different than the Mumbai and Bangladore sourced companies, while often doing a lot of the same incenses, which actually helps to compare the way some ingredients operate under different conditions. For me there’s only about a half dozen that are actively not to my taste and close to double this number of incenses I liked enough to want to stock up on. Please keep in mind if you’re reading this that Pilgrims’ Fair Trade may very well sell out some of these, but they do plan to restock and I’ve seen them do so already so just keep checking their Etsy shop until they’re restocked if you see they’re presently out of stock (also if PFT let me know when they restock I’ll share it). If you know of any aromas I have missed (as I believe other sellers may carry some of the line) and/or wish to share your impressions feel free to do so in any of the threads.
Pushkar Temple / 50g / Kirtan, Kobra, Mantra, Shubham
February 20, 2024 at 9:20 am (Incense, India, Mike, Pushkar Temple Incense)
Pushkar Temple / 100g 1 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 2 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 3 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 50g 1 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 2 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 3 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 4 of 6
So now we get into a bit of guesswork with eight incenses (in two final installments) all stylistically named after various concepts (rather than weigh these down with explanations on each name, I recommend doing web searches on these if you want to know more, as they’re often spiritual concepts based in Hinduism). As such these reviews will be a little shorter and have a bit more guesswork as ingredients on these aren’t available as far as I know.
The first of these, Kirtan, smells to me like a screwpine/kewda forward blend and a very nice one at that. Incenses like these show up in most larger lines, it’s a very distinctive scent from a specific tree. Often you’ll see them as charcoals with oil from the tree, but here’s it’s prettied up a little bit in the perfume direction, similar to the Ruhe Patchouli. For an incense like this is, basically if you haven’t tried screwpine then I’d recommend doing so and then you’d know if you like it or not; however, you’ll probably find you won’t need a whole range of them (my impression is that this isn’t a price prohibitive essential oil). To my nose screwpine is not a particularly controversial sort of scent but it is pretty distinctive and still feels a bit exotic, somewhere between a pine or evergreen scent and something a little more floral. With this base, it is definitely a really nice, stylized version of it, it doesn’t lose the main scent and makes it a little more accessible. So it’s not a bad place to start.
Kobra I might describe as a fruity-floral except its much heavier in the fruity direction. In fact this has so much strawberry in it, that it reminded me of past incenses called Strawberry Champa. This was a much more common blend back in the 90s when champas were generally better incenses, I think even Fred Soll had a really good one for a bit. I’m reminded that many of these didn’t feel like they had off or synthetic notes, the creators often found a way to get the strawberry aroma with a mix of florals and resins, and the Kobra has this kind of feel as well. It’s actually a very friendly incense and I’d be surprised if most readers don’t like this as it’s rare to get an incense this fruity without it impacting the aroma with synthetic off notes.
Mantra is a bit more difficult to pinpoint, but it’s a beautiful floral mix. There are perhaps dozens of different aromatic flowers that can be found in incense that I either don’t know or it has been years since I came across an instance of one (incense, essential oil or otherwise) and this feels like something a bit more specific. The first thing that came to mind was carnation or a white color floral mix. Whatever this floral or floral mix is, it has been mixed with a perfectly sweet (the fresh stick feels a little sweeter than when it burns), spicy and a touch herbal base that accentuates the florals really well; this is not an incense that is likely to induce headaches or irritate the sinuses. Actually, after this deep into the Pushkar Temple range I’m actually marveling at how well they do a lot of florals, and especially for the price range a lot of these have real definition to them.
Right as I was getting down to write this up I was checking my personal backstock and realized Shubham was in there, these are all good indications of things I liked enough to bulk up to 100g or more. This is a fairly unique mustard colored stick with a very intriguing mix of citrus (mostly in the orange direction), fruit, florals and woods that comes together in a sort of uniquely cooling fashion that both succeeds on the face of it but remains fairly complex within as well. The orange scent (and to be fair there’s a little lemon in there too) is usually not my favorite scent on its own in an incense but as a note in a menagerie, often other things can help really do it justice. Here I think there are some florals that work to combine and mitigate the orange from overwhelming the aroma, the florals push it away from being too sweet and over towards the peel. There might even be a bit of grapefruit in it, it’s just a bit hard to tell since there’s so much going on. I can’t actually think of another incense quite like this one, it just has a perfect amount of restraint, especially when you compare it to some of the more bombastic floras. In a lot of cases it’s a matter of making all the neighbors on a block to get along really, a symphony that denotes a perfect harmony.
So really a quartet of great incenses in this one and just four more to go next installment!
Pushkar Temple / 50g / Amber Kasturi, Kohinoor, Opium, Ruhe Patchouli, Tulsi
January 30, 2024 at 8:50 am (Amber, Basil / Tulasi / Tulsi, Incense, India, Kasturi (Musk), Mike, Opium, Patchouli, Pushkar Temple Incense)
Pushkar Temple / 100g 1 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 2 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 3 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 50g 1 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 2 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 3 of 6
This is the fourth group of six in the Pushkar Temple 50g series of incenses and is the first of three miscellaneous categories, although in this group at least some of the names hint at what the incenses are aiming for.
The first one up has the only actual identifiable musk (kasturi) in the catalog. I’ve said this before but I am not entirely convinced unless it comes from the company itself that they’re using animal musk or plant-based musk, and even then there are reasons for not drawing attention to it. I say this because real animal musk is likely at a high price point these days and plant-based musk is probably more common in incenses these days. With that said I’ll leave it at that, except to say that I do notice some importers who ensure their incenses don’t harm animals often don’t have as many musk incenses in their catalogs either. My experience with real animal musk, especially in quantity is it tends to leave the same kind of space that say a skunk spray or horse barn would, it’s the kind of scent that will play with the lizard brain a little and so if you’re not experiencing something like that in an incense I’d guess it’s probably plant-based musk or at least a very small amount of animal musk.
Kasturi musks are usually quite sweet and probably less animalic than say something like civet and so they’re used in perfumes, unfortunately too frequently (although less so with increasing ecological awareness/scarcity over the years). I think a good example of an actual kasturi musk might be the Kourindo Jyakourin Musk incense. It has that sweet note that verges noticeably animalic. Musk is supposedly in Absolute Bliss’ imported Forbidden Fruit, in the sense that it’s an incense that matches up with almost a dozen Vedic Vaani incenses, some of which are labeled Kasturi. I don’t sense much in the way of an animalic note in this incense, so it’s likely just a touch or it’s plant-based. Anyway, I ramble a bit to set up the context for the Pushkar Temple Amber Kasturi. This is a very nice incense, but I would guess right off this is likely a plant-based musk and/or used in small quantities because it doesn’t have much of a wallop to it. It is otherwise similar enough to other Amber musk mixes I have tried, almost all of which I enjoy immensely (add heena and it’s perfection). However, this doesn’t have a super well-defined musk or amber note, it’s more like a mix of the characteristics. So definitely nice, but not, say, on the level of Gokula’s Musk and Amber, this is a lot milder overall. Keep in mind, that exporters’ lack of willingness to identify musk in their incenses for the most part leaves us to guess a lot, but I do think animalic musks tend to hit really hard in incenses, and in a way are very unmistakable. No such wallop here.
Kohinoor may have well gone fine with the last two installments where the names of incenses tend to be more conceptual than revealing. It ended up here for no real reason. This is basically referring to one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, which really tells you nothing about the scent. It feels floral to me, but not obviously so, the oil is also sort of tangy with maybe a light touch of licorice. I’m not sure the balance works all that well, it feels somewhat astringent at times. Whatever floral is front facing escapes me largely because of all these extra subnotes. It reminds me a little of the Tulsi below in that there’s some unnamed herbal content in it as well. And tying all these things together is a kind of sweet, quasi-champa base as well. So it’s sort of like this big mix I don’t find working for me, but your mileage may vary.
The Pushkar Temple Opium is simply fabulous. It’s quite a bit different to the Madhavadas sourced Opium, although there are some similarities (the Madhavadas just off the top of my head is a bit more tart and oil rich). I can’t admit to having ever had the actual Opium experience but it’s a name also used as a perfume which probably complicates what it is supposed to smell like in some way (flower? drug? perfume?). Not to mention the mainstream Opium incenses that don’t do much more than irritate and provide headaches. But simply on the face of it, the Pushkar Temple version is a very attractive incense and maybe somewhat analogous to the Tuberose in that it has a similar base but the floral mix is just one of a kind and not anything I can compare to. The perfume here seems extremely multifaceted, with all sorts of things going on with it and it’s endlessly fascinating and interesting. The mix does smell like a perfume but its base is so tasteful that the overall effect is just marvelous, absolutely zero harsh floral notes. I’d definitely pick this one up, I’m not sure there’s anything quite like it that wouldn’t have faults along with it, it’s really one of the best floral incenses I’ve ever tried.
I almost lost Ruhe Patchouli in the pile, it sort of missed being in my first round of photos, but it seemed best placed here with the mostly descriptive, miscellaneous incenses. Like I mentioned in the previous installment that had a couple of “Ruhe” incenses, it’s difficult to tell if there’s any material reason that ties the three incenses together, but all of them seem like reasonable/quality takes on their main ingredient. I’ve talked a LOT about patchouli in recent installments and am probably running out of things to say about it, but this mix is still a little different from what I usually note as patchouli leaf or oil. It’s much more stylized with a feeling like there’s a perfume that overlies the patchouli scent. It means it’s a little sweeter than most patchoulis you’ll try and also a bit more regal and polished. Whether that’s a good thing probably depends on your taste. But here I think it mixes fairly well into an incense that’s just a little more than the rote stuff you normally find, it’s also probably one of the least earthiest patchoulis I’ve tried.
It’s probably near impossible to beat the Temple of Incense Tulsi, which as I mentioned in the review has been stylized into something sweeter and fruitier. Here I think the Pushkar Temple Tulsi is probably closer to the real thing but then that means you’re getting something of an herbal basil incense. I’m good with basil in a pesto or other types of cooking, but am pretty sure I don’t need an incense of it. Fortunately it’s not all of the way in that direction (not to mention Tulsi doesn’t smell a whole lot like the basil we use in cooking based on its incenses), the PT version is also sweetened up and feels a bit champa-esque, but ultimately there is definitely an herbal note in front. It is however a completely different incense to the TOI, the two really have little in common. This has some sort of minty subnotes to it and some level of mild spice to it that may come from the tulsi or the base, all of this sort of mixes up the final incense. I’m not bowled over by this, it it may just be a taste thing, it’s unlikely to be all that similar to anything you’ve tried before, so if you don’t mind an herbal sort of champa type, you might indeed go for this.
Two more installments to go, virtually all incenses with names that don’t really hint at the scent…
Ramakrishna’s Handmade Incense / Om Shiva, Khus, Spiritual, Gulmohar
January 24, 2024 at 1:42 pm (Halmaddi / Mattipal, Incense, India, Ramkrishna's Handmade Incense, Sandalwood, Stephen, Vetivert / Khus)
Tags: indian, Ramakrishna, Stephen
This is our second installment of reviews of Ramakrishna’s Handmade Incense vendor from Goa. (Link to first review) (Note that we tried to include links to Exotic Incense in the US, if an incense is not linked, please use the first link. These reviews are of sticks purchased directly from Goa.)
Om Shiva
If you are a fan of musky floral presentations similar to the Happy Harry “King of Vrindavan” or Sri Sai Flora, this is going to tickle your fancy. This is a natural stick with a soft charcoal masala that is finished with a brown powder that marbles into the wetness of the halmaddi content of the masala. What sets this apart is that this one smells a little less intense and my guess is that I’ve been used to a synthetic perfume and this is using more natural ingredients. The scent has the core musky scent but there is an interplay between some salty sandalwood and the sweetness of the halmaddi that gives this more dimension than the others that really stay squarely in the musky category. Knowing that more than 95% of the Indian incense market uses synthetic scent components, I still can’t say for sure if this one is in that 5%, but it is so exquisite and gentle that it feels that it might be the case.
Khus (Missing package label)
Natural stick with a soft charcoal masala hand-applied and finished with a brown powder. This smells great, in fact, most top end vetivers from other Indian incense factories are similar in notes but this smells less perfumy and more natural, not sure if they’re using an absolute or an oil but it’s definitely seemingly all-natural and charming with all the halmaddi in this. I’m guessing this is what incense used to smell like before artificial scent molecules were invented.
Spiritual
This is a natural stick with a hand-applied soft charcoal masala finished with a brown powder. I am starting to suspect that some of the Happy Hari family of incense come from ‘traditional’ recipes. This is, as far as I can tell, Pratyahara Sutra done exactly as it used to be. The Happy Hari version is more like a perfume on a charcoal extruded stick. This smells like it is made from all the individual ingredients that make up this sweet, slightly floral/slightly fruity smell. If I had to say what this smells like, it smells like an altar where fruit and flowers have been left and the fragrances have intertwined.
This comes as a yellow stick with a hand-applied soft charcoal masala finished with a dark brown powder. This is an amazing agarbatti. I have encountered versions of this smell in other catalogs and this is the superior version. This is a spikenard-heavy perfume with hints of caramel, and sweetness from the halmaddi in the masala, and there is something that comes across as a touch of musk, or perhaps it’s what I’ve been suggesting is musk in many Tibetans. Either way, this is a beautiful stick and it has enough playfulness that you don’t get the same smell twice.
Future Ramakrishna reviews are pending Stephen recovering his sense of smell after a bout of COVID.
A journey to the source of happiness: Meena Perfumery, Bangalore, India
January 23, 2024 at 8:51 pm (Administrative, Incense, Incense News, India, Meena Perfumery Industries, Mike)
Eugene Andruschenko of Bhagwan Incense and Good Incense has been visiting the Meena Perfumery in Bangalore, India and made a video of some of his time there explaining aspects of how their incense is made. It is rare to get what I call “feet on the ground report” in English so we’re grateful to Eugene for allowing us to share this. Enjoy!
Pushkar Temple / 50g / Sandal Woods, Super Sandal, Natural Rose, Tuberose, Woods
January 15, 2024 at 11:30 am (Incense, India, Mike, Pushkar Temple Incense, Rose, Sandalwood, Tuberose)
Pushkar Temple / 100g 1 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 2 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 3 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 50g 1 of 6
Pushkar Temple / 50g 2 of 6
This is the third of six articles concentrating on the Pushkar Temple incenses packaged in 50g bundles. It includes two sandalwoods, two roses and a familiar incense called Woods.
As I previously mentioned in the 100g series under Mysore Chandan, Pushkar Temple doesn’t really have particularly strong amounts of quality sandalwood in their incenses, they are instead more inclined to have it as a note where the base is almost as strong, while moving in a different direction. And so even the simply named Sandal Woods isn’t very sandalwood heavy, but it’s also probably the least sweet of the incenses in the Pushkar Temple catalog that have sandal or Mysore in the name somewhere. The center of this is kind of dry, there’s some hint of woodiness, but I would doubt anyone trying this would immediately think sandalwood upon a burn, it’s just not that distinctive enough. It feels like there’s maybe been some attempt to bring out the sort of lemon like part of the sandalwood scent but it’s enough to overbalance it, rather than accentuate it. Mix it in with a bit of vanilla and a strange sort of dry balsamic quality and you more or less have where this is pitching towards. Overall if this was called something else or indicated it was a mixed masala it might make a bit more sense, but you really have to move to the Mysore Chandan or the below Super Sandal to start getting a bit more of a hint of any actual sandalwood, to my nose it’s barely even present here. Perhaps it’s harder to source with Rajasthan not being as close to Mysore?
Like with the Mysore Chandan, the Super Sandal has been sweetened up quite a bit, even if it might still have the strongest wood hit in the Pushkar Temple catalog. But ultimately this is to lower expectations a bit because they still do really nice things with sandalwoods. This isn’t terribly far off from the Chandan in the sense that it’s quite sweet but it doesn’t have that incense’s creaminess. Overall it’s really a dance between the top “sandalwood note” that really just kinds of hints at it like the top notes are missing and all the sweetness in the base which plays a little with that internal woody note. There’s even a touch of floral something in the mix that I don’t usually smell anywhere near a sandalwood, but it mixes the whole bouquet up a bit. It’s unquestionably a nice incense as long you realize the name of it is somewhat misleading in the sense that sandalwood is not really the primary note here when you count everything else. But it does have that buzz in the background that means half of this thing is pretty woody anyway. Certainly if you like variants, like the Mysore Chandan or Absolute Bliss incenses like King of Sandal or the ubiquitous Sandalwood Champa found here and there in other lines, then I can easily recommend trying this. I mean think of it this way, the day I looked this up you could get this for about $4 plus shipping, which probably tells you how much actual sandalwood is in it at the same time telling you it’s kind of a steal at that price point.
Natural Rose pitches back to a pink masala, the type I’ve mentioned in quite a few previous reviews as often being a stick that can go in floral, rose, candy-like, cherry and other directions. Here, Pushkar Temple is obviously going for a dead on rose, but this isn’t quite as on point as other incenses I’ve reviewed more recently that actually have a rose smell (say, like the Good Incense Rose), it’s more like a general type of floral that leans more in that air freshener sort of direction, where it starts to feel like it’s on the synthetic side a bit too much. It sort of proves the point why a lot of other incenses in the style prefer different notes to it that are friendlier than this one, the secondary scents are more like alcohol or something chemical. It’s not even close to the worst rose incense I’ve had though and for the types of notes it’s going for it’s not entirely uncomfortable but the issue is there’s so many sticks in this sort of style that are just a lot more pleasant that it’s hard to recommend this one. Once again, just like with sandalwood, you have to consider the price point and that real rose is very difficult to ape without expense.
Tuberose is a lot more interesting, it’s an incense type I’ve seen a couple times through the years but it isn’t particularly common (Primo has one that was central to their line, but it wasn’t very good if I remember correctly). In fact if you do a quick search on tuberose you’ll find it doesn’t even look like a rose and is actually part of a completely different family; however, it has been used in perfumery for 100s of years. Now I probably live in a climate where tuberose shows up, but I don’t remember specifically experiencing a whiff, but this incense did sort of put out some nostalgic feelers for me a little bit, and it has such a nicely unique scent to it. If it’s said that too much tuberose can overwhelm, then Pushkar Temple’s is a nice match of some sort of perfume with a friendly, somewhat dry base. At times I think the perfume comes off of it quite clear and it seems really measured in intensity. It’s not really rose-like in the regular sense, but it is a friendly and unique floral in this line, and every time I burn a stick I really enjoy it. I suspect it’s the kind of thing you will have to get your own take on, but I suspect if you’re pretty experienced with incense and don’t have a tuberose, then this will fit nicely as a bit of breadth in your collection. I like the drier base and the whole thing doesn’t seem super drenched in florals like the Natural Rose seemed to be. And once it really seems to build up in an area it becomes quite notable what balance it has. But please note that I brought this incense up right before I reviewed the Dimension 5 floral with tuberose, this is of course not at all on that sort of connoisseur level and doesn’t have much in the way of resolution.
Woods is a very familiar incense, it’s somewhat reminiscent of the Little Woods Shroff does (in fact I just sampled a recent box from Exotic Incense) and I’ve seen other similar incenses pop up here and there that are close. It’s something of a traditional recipe, but I would imagine newer versions probably need perfumes to make it work. I think you have to look at this like “the Woods” for it to make sense as it has never been something like a mix of sandalwood and what not, it always struck me more as being something with more forest-like characteristics, usually something of a lot of evergreen and resin. Noone’s ever done it better than the original Shroff version, even Shroff itself has let the formula go a little bit, perhaps some ingredients for it have just gotten too expensive. But what they all have at heart is a sort of prettied up mix of resins, amber and wood oils. This is a nice version of it in the same direction, sure it’s a bit perfumed and the ratio of ingredients is a little different, but it still roughly hits the target. There have always felt like a lot of ingredients in this mix, perhaps too many to quantify or separate but the combination is quite distinctive in its effect. Definitely a worthy version if you haven’t tried it before.
The final three groups will basically be all miscellaneous incenses, mostly names that aren’t particularly revealing of what’s in the incense, although there are a few that are, most or all of which will be in the next installment. Stay tuned!
Pushkar Temple / 50g / Agar Woods, Oud Woods, Ruhe Heena, Ruhe Oud
January 6, 2024 at 11:49 am (Agarwood / Aloeswood / Eaglewood, Hina (Heena), Incense, India, Mike, Oud, Pushkar Temple Incense)
Pushkar Temple / 100g 1 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 2 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 100g 3 of 3
Pushkar Temple / 50g 1 of 6
So now moving over from a number of loud and brash floras it’s not a bad idea to compare and contrast with a very different sort of quartet. Three of these fit at least somewhat close to the agarwood and oud incenses you’ve tried from all sorts of companies while I’ve borrowed one of the other two “Ruhe” incenses for no other reason than numbering…
Pushkar Temple agarwood/oud incenses are certainly nice incenses but they follow the same rules as any other Indian masalas in that agarwood or precious oudhs are not actually used (or if they are, they are spread very, very thin). This confidence is just based on increasing costs of these aromatics, you’d be looking more at something like Dimension 5 if you want the real thing in a stick. So here we’re going for something like verisimilitude or perhaps tribute might be the right word. Pushkar Temple also use completely different formulas to say Madhavahas or Happy Hari, so these are going to be both familiar and a bit different as well.
One of the things I notice about an incense like Agar Woods is how it almost feels like it’s built from its notes up, with the whole leather, cologne, spice and wood mix coming together to approximate a take on agarwood. If it doesn’t hit the nail on the head, it is close and it certainly lands somewhere yummy. It’s a bit perfumed, which is something more obvious from the fresh stick, but perhaps somewhat surprisingly there is some feel of the actual wood in there and I’m not quite sure how they’re doing it (likely either cheap agarwood or something else, but modified). There’s definitely that sort of turpentine/lacquer kind of mix that’s almost necessary for the scent, but there’s also a lot of caramel and confectionary spice, even a touch of something like banana bread in there. Nothing gets too sweet because there is some sort of base woodiness at work, not to mention a healthy amount of spice. Overall, this is like a lot of Indian agarwood sticks in that it seems quite cologne forward, but they’ve done a really good job at getting something more like an oud to move laterally over into woods territory just a little. So, if you’re fatiguing on something like the Pure Incense agarwoods or, god forbid, the Happy Hari Oud Masala, this should be quite the antidote as it does something similar without being anywhere close to identical, which is exactly what you would hope for.
Oud Woods, a more recent import, might have been better christened as something like Oud Flora, as the oud scent is much fainter than it is in the other oud/agarwood incenses in this review, in fact it would be arguable if it actually was a note here. The base is certainly more flora-like and very sweet, it’s a sort of sugar and spice kind of thing that might strike users as pretty familiar in other Indian incenses. If this had been introduced to me under a name without oud in it, I actually doubt I’d be here talking about any oud notes, you really have to stretch to detect anything like that and even in doing that, I doubt I’d mention them in a blind taste test. As an incense on its own without any expectations, there do feel like there’s some level of caramel or confectionary in the mix although they are sharing time with a more powdery, crystalline sweet sort of base, so a lot of this all gets tangled up in a mix that defies distinction. What worries me a little is that a mix like this with this level of sweetness can get a bit sickly and while I wouldn’t expect this same reaction from everyone in the ORS audience, I’d just mention that this is somewhere on the line for me, but for the most point avoids it. However, it’s not quite the kind of stick I’d burn a second in a row without going for something completely different to mix it up either. It may very well be that whatever oud note attempted here just got diluted too much for the final batch, as I still occasionally get distracted by notes in that vicinity, as if they’re almost there. It’s a nice incense for sure, I just feel like it falls just short of a great one and wonder if a batch that strengthened these notes might actually be a success.
So there are three incenses in the Pushkar Temple catalog that start with “Ruhe,” a quick search on the internet didn’t seem to bring up anything definitive as to what it means. Needless to say there’s a Heena, an Oud (both in this review) and a Patchouli (coming later). I’ve yet to come up with anything definitive in how the three are tied together. Needless to say I love me a good heena (hina) and Pushkar Temple’s Ruhe Heena is a rather pitch perfect example of what one should be like. This sort of minty-green tree leaf is such a specific scent that I’ve generally fallen for it and also love when it shows up in amber and/or musk combinations, anything that combines with it broadens the aromatic experience. The Ruhe Heena gets the dark green color of the masala dead on and a nice deep minty-green heena note. The bouquet may have been sweetened up a little to be more friendly, but nothing really detracts or muddles the main scent. I’ll only mention that in my incense-experiencing years, the kinds of things I’d run across as supposedly including hina and heena used to be more in the domain of charcoals and absolutely none of them smelled like this, so it wasn’t until much later that I came across some authentic variants. It’s a distinctive note and while it might not be to your taste at least you can confirm through this if it is. The green/mint (there’s also maybe something like a touch of limepeel) overlap just ensures that it is not quite definitively either. Be sure to check it out if you’re not familiar with the tree, it will open up another incense area for you.
Of all the incenses here, Ruhe Oud may have the strongest agarwood note of them all. It’s a very interesting note as it shares time with honey, caramel, raisins and wine, and this difference makes it as individually distinctive as all of these incenses are. Amazingly this actually does get a sort of wood/resin-heated scent to it, its charry/burnt scent melds nicely next to those previously mentioned notes. Mind you I don’t think this is coming from any actual agarwood per se but I do appreciate the attempt to have it approximated in some way as it’s a very rare thing in Indian incenses. The whole thing has something of a falling leaf/autumnal vibe about it. Again, I think the success of an Indian agarwood or oud incense in this era is just doing something exquisitively imitative (with the above mentioned Oud (Masala) being sort of the alpha in the bunch). Maybe my only issue with it is it still feels like it has a dialed down base that you could compare easily to Oud Woods, fortunately it does not overwhelm anything going on here, but I generally feel that you still get it in the radius of the burn cloud a bit. It’s not a bad base, just maybe something not exactly complementary to its mission. But the top notes are really too well done to have this be much of a complaint and I still would recommend this to those who might want a different Indian oud experience.
So as to reiterate you can generally see after this second installment of Pushkar Temple incenses that the hit rate leaps up really fast, the worst of the lot are still really decent incenses, and the best of them are absolutely something I would recommend. You will be happy to know this is a trend that largely continues as we move to the next installment and a group of sandalwoods and roses. Stay tuned!
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.
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…
Olfactory Rescue Service 
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