Incense in The Wind: Best Perfumed Incense

Incense sticks dipped in scent and coloured dye

Personal opinion

Incense sticks (or joss sticks or agarbatti) can be made from a dried masala mix of ingredients, or - more commonly - are sticks of pressed charcoal or wood dust dipped in a scented liquid. This is generally called perfume-dipped incense. One of the things I have picked up from the few other (and now pretty much all closed) incense blogs, is a view that perfume-dipped incense sticks are vulgar and nasty, while incense sticks made the traditional way from natural ingredients ground down into a masala and mixed with a paste that is then rolled onto the stick are heavenly and artistic. And I certainly get where they are coming from. The incense that I tend to get the most enjoyment and satisfaction from is the traditional masala incense. The incense that is the most disappointing and crude is the chemical-dipped sticks. However, what I have also found is that perfume-dipped does not necessarily mean chemical solvents - some dipped sticks use essential oils; indeed, many masala sticks use essential oils; also now and again there is a solvent dipped stick where the chemists have made a compelling and attractive scent that burns agreeably. After all, some of the world's most popular and expensive scents are liquid perfumes rather than the unprocessed raw materials.

I also tend to find that perfume-dipped incense has a greater range of aromas - ranging from the traditional to very modern and joyful. Some of the modern perfume-dipped sticks are very sweet and great fun. They make me smile. While the scents from masala incense tend to follow a narrow range, and can tend to be a little sombre and old-fashioned - though, to be fair - it tends to be masala incense that transcends me, and lifts me to another place. As a rough guide, I would say that I prefer perfume-dipped for everyday incense burning, or for when I want something light and fun, and masala incense for when I want a serious incense that can transport me, or when I want to delight or impress visitors, friends and family.

Manufacture

Sticks being hand-rolled

Perfume-dipped incense sticks start off with the blanks. These are the sticks, which are made from split bamboo imported from China, which are either hand-rolled or machine applied with the base combustible paste - which may be pine or laurel tree sawdust or charcoal dust mixed with a binding agent, which may be honey. There is no difference that I have seen in the quality of hand rolled blanks over machine applied blanks, though there is a slight difference between the scenes of workers sitting by a machine feeding it sticks all day, as here, to the scenes of women who generally sit in a circle, either indoors or outside, rolling sticks by hand, as here. Here's a tourist visiting a small backstreet incense factory, which appears to only have one woman rolling sticks. The difference for the incense maker, though, is that more sticks can be made in a shorter time by machine than by hand.

A semi-automated incense dipping machine

Manual dipping into a bucket

The blank sticks are then wrapped in bundles and put into a dipping machine, like this one, or dipped into a bucket by hand, as here. Here is the same principle explained for home use. Once the scent has been applied it is left to dry, and is then packaged and sold to us.

Best of lists

2018 Top Ten Perfume-Dipped Incense

I'm starting my 2018 list of all perfume-dipped incenses (cones and sticks) that strike me as particularly worthwhile as I review them. As with 2017, I will include here any incense I re-review., and only incenses that score 30 or higher will get listed.

Hari Om Tez
Score: 41

GR International Jasmine
Score: 40

Hari Om Rajanigandha
Score: 36

Zam Zam African Cush
Score: 35

Hari Om Sambrani
Score: 35

Sifcon Cinnamon Cedarwood
Score: 33

Zam Zam Black Love
Score: 32

Moroccan Bazaar Cherry
Score: 30

Z am Zam Jamaican Breeze
Score: 30

Tulasi Amber
Score: 30

2017 Top Ten Perfume-Dipped Incense

This is a list of the best perfume-dipped incense I burned in 2017 that struck me as particularly worthy. It includes cones as well as sticks, and as well as incense that I have previously reviewed, but re-reviewed in 2017. Only incense that scores 30 or higher gets listed here

Sital Ratnamala
Score: 41

Hem Frankincense & Myrrh

Score: 40

Stamford Dragon's Fire
Score: 40

Stamford Werewolf's Bite
Score: 39

Hari Om Lavender
Score: 38

Hari Om 12/- Tez
Score: 38

GR International Jasmine
Score: 38

Sifcon Cinnamon Cedarwood (P)
Score: 37

Love in Life / Asoka Trading
Bharath Darshan
Score: 37

Stamford
Midnight Collection 07 Cones
Score: 36

Stamford
Wizard's Spell
Score: 35

***

Best of the rest in 2017

Stamford
Vampire's Kiss
Score: 34

Stamford Lavender (cones)
Score: 34

SAC (Sandesh) Patchouli (cones)
Perfume-dipped. Score: 33

Stamford
Mermaid's Love
Score: 33

Poundland Coley & Gill
Fig and Wild Plum
Score: 33

SAC (Sandesh) Jasmine

Score: 32

SAC (Sandesh) Champa
Score: 32

Aargee Rose
Score: 32

Hari Om Divine Incense Butmogra
Score: 32

Hari Om 12/- Pankudi
Score: 35

Bloome Incense
Indian Sandalwood
Score: 30

Knox
Weihrauch-Myrrhe Räucherkerzen
Score: 30

***

Top Ten 2016

I've compiled a list of my top ten perfume-dipped incense sticks as it stands at the end of 2016. Some of these date from when I started reviewing incense in 2013, so my views on what is a good incense may well have changed over the years. As such I will compile a new list, later, for 2017. And if this is popular, I will continue to do so each year.