Incense in The Wind

Wednesday, 18 March 2026

Jahagirdar First Choice Anarkali Flora

This is part of Jahgirdar's Flora collection. A Flora incense is one that is generally in the style of Sri Sai Flora Fluxo - a masala stick quite rich with oils. The name refers to the mysterious legend of Anarkali, a courtesan of Akbar the Great. In one version she fell in love and had an affair with Akbar's son, and when Akbar found out, he had her walled up in his palace. The son then rebelled against his father, killed him, took the throne as Jahangir, and had a tomb built for Anarkali. The more prosaic version of the story is that Anarkali was a walled pomegranate garden (the name means "pomegranate blossom") which echoes the walling up of Anarkali.

Anarkali embraced by Jahangir

I love such names. Way more evocative and romantic than something like "Rose and Saffron" (though, to be fair, "Rose and Saffron" is an attractive and enticing incense name, and more helpful than Anarkali).

As with the Sugandh Flora, this is a plump and soft extruded stick coated with melnoorva/masala powder. The powder is more Barbie pink than rose, with a vivid neon quality. The scent is wonderfully sweet and powdery floral. Deliciously yummy! This is such an exciting and vibrant cold throw fragrance - deliciously feminine and fresh and flowery, with a soft and clean woody base, light touches of fruit - melon and apricot, and a soft moment of sweet orange zest. Awesome!

The scent on the burn is green, earthy, floral, woody, lightly animalistic - warm woolly sheep, sweetly, softly fruity - a gentle tang. Wow. What's impressive is not just that there's a lot going on (this is far from a simplistic mono-scent incense), but that it all ties and flies together so well. This is a harmony blend which does reveal the seven generations of experience and skill in fragrance building. This is warm, resinous, comforting, luxurious, fluffy, earthy, floral, uplifting, joyous. It is elegant, sophisticated, and meditative. In short it is bloody gorgeous. From the name and attached story I was expecting a pomegranate scent, and I can't completely rule it out, but while there are fruity elements with some tang, this leans much more in the direction of rose and saffron with its blossomy softness and spicy warmth.

I've just looked up "pomegranate blossom" and the description I found is pretty much what I've been experiencing: "soft, subtle, and somewhat fruity" and "understated, blending in with the green, slightly earthy undertones typical of blossoming fruit trees". The accord of this incense is Anarkali walled up. Perfect.

Only available in India. ₹160 for 100g, direct from Jahagirdar, or from GroovyFragrances.

Date: Mar 2026 Score: 50

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Jahagirdar First Choice Sugandh Flora

This is part of Jahgirdar's Flora collection. A Flora incense is one that is generally in the style of Sri Sai Flora Fluxo - a masala stick quite rich with oils. They are traditionally quite thick, heavy, and soft, with the stick often bending under its own weight. And they are often coated with the brown wood powder known as melnoorva (or masala powder). The powder was originally used to preventing the finished sticks from gluing together as they dried, and was sometimes perfumed. Over time it has come to signify a masala style incense, and so is now expected. The dough in this Sugandh is perfumed and has been machine extruded, so it doesn't need the powder, but people tend to expect it. Sugandh means fragrance, and is sometimes used as part of the name of an incense house or of a individual incense.

The scent on the stick is gorgeous - clean, bright sandalwood with citric floral notes, a hint of lemon and a whiff of fresh daisies. Delightful.

The accord on the burn follows a traditional masala/flora profile of clean sandalwood and cosy florals - in this case quite sweet and rose like. And there are some mild spice notes and a hint of warm woolly sheep. A solid incense.

Date: Mar 2026 Score: 35

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Jahagirdar First Choice Majmua

Majmua is a classic Indian attar from Kannauj, the capital of perfume. It is a layered fragrance - its name means collection or gathering - which generally involves vetiver and kewra in a
sandalwood base. My previous experiences with Majmua - Blue Pearl Majmua and Gamta Miracle Majmua - have been positive. Jahagirdar are a seventh generation attar house in Pune who, since 1942, have also been making incense. In 2017 they set up a separate incense factory called First Choice. Awkward name, but my first experience of their incense, Rose Oudh, was awesome. My sort of incense - rich, warm, intelligent, passionate, yet soft as a feather pillow of fragrance.

The stick looks very similar to the Rose Oudh - it is a fat, heavy, dark paste extruded on a dyed pink bamboo splint. I can't tell them apart by sight. However, the scent on the paste is different. Where Rose Oudh is sweet, floral, woody, and immediately captivating, the Majmua is more subtle and alluring with understated mineral and marine notes combined with soft, sherbetty citrus and rose. It's a lovely scent.

The scent on the burn is soft and gentle and very subtle. There is a sweet and natural and understated balance of rose and sandalwood. It's fairly clean and pleasant, though perhaps a little too subtle and unadventurous for my taste.

Only available in India. ₹300 for 100g, direct from Jahagirdar, or from GroovyFragrances.

Date: Mar 2026 Score: 30

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Tuesday, 17 March 2026

Oudh explored

In Arabian and Islamic culture Agarwood chips are soaked in aromatic oils to make both an incense and a perfume known as bakhoor (or sometimes just oud/h). In India this tradition is blended with Indian incense making to produce Indian style incense sticks fragranced with oudh style attars. The result is likely to be sweeter, richer, more oil heavy than incense sticks named Agarwood, which are more likely to be woody and drier or more neutral in nature. Popular in China and Japan. When made in India, they are likely from a Hindu incense house.

Oudh incense sticks - likely to be rich, dark, heavy, honey sweet with distinct floral/rose notes for balance. Possibly made by a Muslim incense house.

Agarwood incense sticks - likely to be woody, but lighter, dryer, more neutral than an Oudh stick. Popular in China and Japan. When made in India, most likely to be a Hindu incense house.

Some Indian incense houses may make both an Oudh and an Agarwood incense.

Reviews

Jahagirdar First Choice Rose Oudh (M)
Mar 2026 - Score: 50

Absolute Bliss Oudh Masala (M)

Sept 2023 - Score: 49

Happy Hari Oudh Masala
August 2017 - Score: 48*

Temple of Incense Oudh (M)
Feb 2025 - Score 47=

Sai Handicrafts UK Oudh (M)
Feb 2026 - Score: 44↓

Nandita Dehn Al Oudh (PM)
Dec 2024 - Score: 44↑

Misbah's Rose Oudh (PM)
Oct 2025 - Score: 43

Balaji Bakhoor Premium Incense Sticks

October 2023 - Score: 41↑↓

Rasbihari Lal Absolute Oud (P)
Aug 2025 - Score: 40

Ranga Rao Manmohak Oudh
Sept 2023 - Score: 40

Om Brand Vedamrut Oudh (M)
Oct 2023 - Score: 39

Misbah's Bakhoor (PM)

Nov 2025 - Score: 39↑

Misbah's Silky Oudh (PM)
Nov 2025 - Score: 37

Fumino Oudh (PM)
Jun 2025 - Score: 34↓

Oriental White Oudh (PM)
Oct 2025 - Score: 33

Aasha Aromatics Oudh
October 2018 - Score: 30*

Goloka Oud

Nov 2022 - Score: 28

Gokula Oud
Pure Vietnamese Agarwood Connoisseur (P)
Aug 2023 - Score: 28

Siro Ancient Oodh (P)
March 2024 - Score: 27

Goloka Oud incense cones

Jan 2024 - Score: 27

Nandita Arabian Oudh (E)
Jan 2025 - Score: 24

Temple of Aromas Black Oud (P)
Sep 2025 - Score: 21

Reviews: 21
Top Score: 50

Low Score: 21

Average: 36

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What's The Best Incense In The World?

Different Scents

Jahagirdar First Choice Rose Oudh

Jahagirdar are a 7th generation Indian attar business who set up in Pune in 1850, and became an incense house in 1943 - they have their incense shop next door to their attar shop in Budhwar Peth Rd. In 2017 they set up First Choice Fragrances with their own factory. The samples I have (sent by Julian of The Incense Atelier) are more in the Arabian/Muslim tradition of Indian incense than the Hindu - more perfumed, more oudh focused, richer, deeper, more oil based and decorative than the Hindu sandalwood focused which is more aimed at tradition and ritual. The spiritual value of the ingredients. Hindu incense for the temples. Muslim/Arabian incense for the palaces.

Muslim incense is a style that doesn't get exported to the West anywhere near as much as the Hindu style, unless the incense house is Hindu but makes a few Arabian style incense sticks for their customers. It's a shame, because I feel I am often more in tune with this richer, deeper, oil intense style of incense. I think the West is largely unaware of the beauty and power of this style of incense.

I like the long history of Jahagirdar, and I like the Jahagirdar name, which is redolent of Maharashtra/Karnataka history, of Persian Mughals, and of a beautiful, proud culture, and I like the packet the Rose Oudh is sold in. I don't like the First Choice name. Put bluntly, it is cheap, trivial, and naff. And these samples are in glossy plastic sleeves which feels more suitable for commercial perfume-dipped incense than for the masala creations of a traditional incense house in Pune. The impression given by the name and the glossy sleeves is rather negative, but when the sticks are pulled out. Ah! the oil heavy sticks, bursting with fragrance tell their own story - a story in marked contrast to the First Choice name and the shiny sleeves.

The scent on the stick is beautiful. I've had it out on my desk for several days as I got distracted by other things, and forgot to put it back. But it is still fresh and juicy and ravishing. A true royal decoration. Oil heavy, woody, and gloriously, expansively floral - blooming red Damask rose petals. I love the fragrance opposites of the musky alcoholic fermenting wood and the sumptuous airy, floating, gorgeous rose. Male and female. Yin and yang. Held in exquisite balance. I don't often (ever?) call an incense fragrance a work of art, but this comes damn close. This is consummate perfumer's skill. Seven generations of attar makers in the city in India renowned for the high quality of its traditional incense have brought this about. Skill, tradition, experience, and pride, result in the most divine incense.

The scent on the burn is heady but softly, smoothly, like a fluffy eiderdown, heady. It tenderly embraces. This is a cloud of fragrance that is ready to transport the willing. A rare delight. All the cold throw scents on the stick are here in harmony during the burn - that awesome balance of woods and roses. A succulent rose drenched bukhoor style incense. An awesome marriage of India and Persia. A true beauty.

Only available in India. ₹300 for 100g, direct from Jahagirdar, or from GroovyFragrances.

Date: Mar 2026 Score: 50

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Oud explored

Best rose incense

Monday, 16 March 2026

Koh-Do Elbenzauber Incense

Elbenzauber (Elven magic) is the brand name of Indian incense imported, rebranded, and sold by a German couple who have an Indian goods shop, Koh-Do, in Berlin. They don't sell online themselves, but their incense is available from a handful of German webstores such as Sensatonics and HouseOfHealing, and eBay (which don't sell to the UK or USA). The prices tend to be €4.50 for 15gm. In their history, they tell the familiar story of being in India and encountering a pleasant scent, and then doing a deal to import the incense they encountered into their home country under their own brand name. And the incense is the typical decent masala style incense that is good enough to import and sell under your own name. It is a decent and attractive incense. Solid stuff.

More interestingly, they have a Ritual range, which they make themselves in Berlin, buying the recipes and the equipment from an incense maker who appears to have stopped making incense.

Reviews

Elbenzauber Nag Champa (M)
Feb 2024 - Score: 40

Elbenzauber Patchouli (M)
Jan 2024 - Score: 38

Elbenzauber Tallisin Krauter (M)
Jan 2024 - Score: 35

Elbenzauber Lugnasad-Blüten (M)
Jan 2024 - Score: 32

Elbenzauber Mattipal (M)
Jan 2024 - Score: 28

Reviews: 5
High score: 40
Low score: 28
Average: 35

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Own brand retailers

Thursday, 12 March 2026

"True Vrindavan" from The Incense Atelier

"True Vrindavan"

Julian of Incense Atelier has imported a selection of sticks into the UK from an outlet in Vrindavan who have a two generation heritage of incense making, which Julian is selling as "True Vrindavan". It is possible that some of these sticks are the ones sold by places such as Vrindavan Bazaar, Hare Krishna Das, and Rasbihari Lal & Sons, though there's no direct evidence. I have been researching Vrindavan for a while as I'll be visiting there in November this year (2026), so I was able to identify the outlet; but out of respect for Julian I'm not revealing the source, not even privately.

Reviews