The first time I got a whiff of Ramakrishnanda (NOTE 10/8/21: Ramakrishnanda refers to the previous name of the line, which is now Prabhuji Gift’s Devotion line.) incense was when walking into the local new age store one afternoon. The use of ingredients and oils in these scents was so potent that you could tell new incense had been added as soon as the door opened even with the incense at the very back of the store. While Ramakrishnanda have a few different styles within their catalog, including charcoals and durbars, their most common scents tend to be in the flora category. Flora incenses (perhaps the most famous is the Sai Flora blend created by Damodhar, which is the genesis of the Golden Champa style most commonly found imported to the US) are heavily aromatic Indian incense masalas, however in the case of Ramakrishnanda, the thickness of the sticks tend to be much closer to the typical durbar style rather than the extra thick size of the Sai Flora type blends.
However, they do have in common with Sai Flora and the like an oil mix which is probably the root of the flora style, a mix usually so complex it’s difficult to parse into its elements, but it imparts not only a heavy perfume but a marriage with a sweet base that makes them quite attractive and accessible. In four of the five incenses in this group, all of which can be sampled in the Dhanvatari Variety Pack, there is a distinct similarity in the base of the incense which only tends to be modified by the top oil notes. It, perhaps, made them a little difficult to review as I found myself a bit blurred out by the time I reached the fourth stick. At the same time, the first three of these are actually some of the best incenses in the line.
Gopala is described as a special flora, and as such appears to be one of the few incenses in the line where specific ingredients haven’t been provided. Like all of the incenses here there’s a very sugary, sweet and heavily oiled base at work, however due to the thinness of the stick, the scent isn’t totally overwhelming, and it gives rise to a very pleasant top note that is like a mix of orange, spice and earth, a scent that’s somewhat accidentally a lot like earlier champa blends. There appears to be quite a bit of clove in the mix and it reminds me a bit of spiced tea. Strangely enough and very unlike most flora incenses it’s quite the fast burn, however like most floras the scent is quite long lasting.
Gopinatha, described as a mix of Iris, Daffodil and Jasmine, isn’t terribly different in style from the Gopala although it does indeed lose a lot of the hotter and spicier qualities. As such it’s perhaps a bit closer in style to the classic Sai Flora/Golden Champa style, but as usual, thinner sticked and mellower overall. The entire incense seems to be anchored by the jasmine element, which blends nicely with the sugary base with the iris and daffodil elements playing somewhat drily on the outside. If anything it might suffer from being too indistinct at times, an issue for many flora incenses that hit you with all the ingredients at once. But this problem isn’t quite so pronounced here.
Mukunda‘s patchouli and spice blend doesn’t render the stick closer to the typical mix of patchouli and champa elements, in fact the patchouli’s more wilder, earthier and controversial side seems to disappear into the blend, leaving only its drier and, thanks to the base, sweeter qualities. It’s also not unlike Gopinatha, once again reminding one of how similar the bases of all these flora incenses are. Of the group here this is probably and marginally the closest to my personal tastes, but in saying so I almost wish for some of the wilder more feral elements of the patchouli to come into play, this is something of a safe mix as a result.
Of the four floras, I’d say Vrinda Devi is the least distinct, but as the line’s straighter nag champa, I wouldn’t initially consider this with the preceding floras if it weren’t for the base being so similar. Perhaps the lack of the creamier and more honey/vanilla side of the champa is what’s missing on this one, or perhaps entries such as the Bam and Shroff eclipse this one in power and presence by comparison. What I described earlier as a mix of oils and sweetness at base seems to move this in a direction I’d say isn’t generically champa like and it even has a dryness I find unusual. Not a bad incense on its own merits, but as a champa it’s distinctly uncompetitive.
Yamuna is the odd one out here being a charcoal and oil mix and I’m not sure if Ramakrishnanda have improved their charcoal mix or if my nose has grown further accustomed, but this strikes me as being a lot better than it did when I initially tried it out a couple years ago. As a mix of vanilla, copal and amber it’s something of an unusual blend and possibly why I appreciate it more now, particularly as you rarely see copal in a charcoal blend. But amazingly all three elements are fairly apparent in the oil blend (the vanilla the dominant note) and it’s something of an attractive mix. An interesting comparison could be the Pure-Incense Hari Leela in either Absolute or Connoisseur lines, it has that back and forth way of both impressing with the oil mix and slightly detracting due to the charcoal.
I recently modified our Hall of Fame list for Incenses from India, removing the Ramakrishnanda incenses in this sampler from the list. However this is more an attempt at improving the quality of that list than a general slight on the Ramakrishnanda line as these are all actually quite good, particularly the first three, in fact perhaps the major change is that at 10 sticks per package these aren’t quite up to what is being imported now compared to what was on the US market two years ago. But if you’re looking to expand your Indian stick pallet, you definitely need to stop here and considering you can check out all these scents for an affordable price, there seems little reason not to.
Olfactory Rescue Service 