Finally, as a bonus review and appendix to the reposted/redone Happy Hari series, I wanted to post all of the discontinued incenses from the Happy Hari line here for historical posterity. And I should say that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the incenses are discontinued at their original source, just that they are currently not imported to the West that I know of. For example, I believe Meena Supreme is still up and operating, but it’s not in the Happy Hari catalog at the present time. Also Indian sandalwood incenses like King Sandal change just as much from the differences in sandal oil quality over the years as well, although in this case the old version was a different incense stylistically as well. Also, Absolute Bliss has dozens of other incenses that come from the same Indian supplier, many of which we will be getting to as we move forward, but the discontinued incenses here were considered once part of the Happy Hari line. Keep in mind the historical reviews here were written probably somewhere from the late 00s to the early 10s and that I’ve possibly taken out some of the original context as orphan reviews. These are just here as a record.
[Original Meena Supreme review] But even if you can’t count on incense nirvana, usually something so prized is usually going to be quite good and for the most part Meena Supreme succeeds from just about every angle and if it may not be the best incense ever created, I’d definitely say it’s one of the more unique and desirable of Indian incenses and certainly one I’m going to add to our Hall of Fame. Meena Supreme is a fluxo incense which means it’s solidly in the genre inhabited by Sai Flora, Sai Deep, Sai Leela and the like, which also means it’s a big stick, highly aromatic and something of a major smoke producer. This is perfect for me, especially during the dawning of spring where various allergies often make smelling Japanese incense very difficult, but if Indian incense smoke is too much for you, Meena Supreme will likely be too. In fact during the first two sticks, I wasn’t even sure if I would end up liking it, but it was likely because it was just too much at the time.
Since my initial foray into Meena Supreme, I think I’ve burned three to four boxes of it if not more (the size box I got fit about 6-8 sticks I believe). It is a highly addictive scent once you get it as most signature scents are and is also very hard to describe. Meena Supreme starts with the same earthy, almost stable-like background tones of Sai Flora but that’s where the similarity between incenses ends. Where Sai Flora goes in a bright, heavily floral, brassy direction, Meena Supreme is much more sultry with a mix of woods, rose, cocoa, coffee (with milk) and most importantly a feeling that all the subscents have been blended and aged. Most importantly Meena Supreme had the ability to make me think about it a lot when I wasn’t burning it, which has let to a lot of impromptu reaches.
[Historical King Sandal review] Happy Hari’s King Sandal is a champa type scent that will be familiar to those who have tried incenses like Rare Essence’s Sandalwood Supreme and Precious Sandalwood. However, unlike those incenses Happy Hari’s Sandal has a nice and sweet sandalwood, honey and halmaddi mix that really lifts the whole scent so that you have a fine oil mix riding an excellent base. In Indian incense, these are the types of sandalwood sticks I tend to prefer as the oils smell very woody and not so much a buttery/vanilla thing like so many of the masalas have.
[Historical King Saffron review] The King of Saffron will be of no surprise to anyone having some experience with Indian incense, as this yellow dusted, thin masala is common in other lines as Saffron or Saffron Sandalwood. I would mention that there’s a slight freshness and clarity to this version that might make it the one to start with. In many ways it’s a “classic” Indian scent and one I might put in a starter set.
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