Incense in The Wind: August 2013

Saturday, 31 August 2013

Jin Wan Lai Wealth Offering

These Chinese sticks come in an elaborate decorative box. The sticks are very long, and each box contains over 600 sticks. The recommended retail price is £60, though they can be bought from Tranquil Garden for £34, or in handfuls of 15 in clear plastic bags from eBay for around £1.40.

The sticks are nearly 13 inches long, though only 8 1/2 of that is incense. They have a very long red handle. The incense is rolled on very thinly. It's a pleasant sandy colour, and has a delicate melodic perfume with hints of lime. It is a lovely and delicate scent. When burned what is more noticeable, however, is the base herbs. The perfume is a little too delicate to make itself felt with just one stick burning.

I'm pleased to have tried these - my first Chinese incense. But I'm glad I didn't have to invest over £34, nor end up with over 600 sticks. The incense is marketed as though Jin Wan Lai are a very fine Chinese incense manufacturer. Perhaps they are among the best that China has to offer - or maybe that is typical incense company blurb. But I am taking care to look only for cheap deals when it comes to buying other Chinese incense. These sticks are not that impressive.

Score: 22

***

Incense by Country

What's The Best Incense In The World?

Christmas Time incense (brand closed)

Imported by the UK distributor Emporiumuk.biz [closed 2021] from an unknown supplier. I bought these from a seller on ebay for 99p for 20. The sticks and incense are dyed red. The sticks have been handrolled from a charcoal base and then rolled in an incense masala and probably perfume dipped as well. The sticks have a jammy sweet and pleasantly spiced aroma, reminiscent of Christmas jam. On burning the aroma is more of the base herbs that are used in the masala. There are hints of jammy spice, but not enough to make this a truly Christmas incense. Perhaps the sticks are old and the spicy perfume has gone stale leaving mainly the herb base? Anyway, the end result is a fairly dull and ordinary, if inoffensive, incense.

Emporiumuk have an incense factory in Calcutta, so the sticks could have been made there. Though they also import from "Tibet", and these sticks have the earthy herbal quality of Tibetan incense.

Date: Aug 2013 Score: 25

***

Emporium incense
(Own brand label
out of business)

Friday, 30 August 2013

Darshan Kanishka (Vanilla)

Second review - scroll down for earlier

I like this. Honey and vanilla and sandalwood. It's not a great scent, but it's warm and seductive and very appealing. There is the sense of the chemical origin, but very lightly, and not harsh or offensive. This is a gentle, seductive, sensual, and slightly sexy scent. Suitable for evenings and bedrooms, though could also be used at any time, as the perfume is quite refined and inviting. I'm liking this slightly more than I did two years ago.

Score: 31 - May 2015

First review

A very pleasing and natural feeling vanilla incense. I like vanilla, but haven't - until now - found a vanilla incense that I found smelled naturally of vanilla. Hand-rolled charcoal base which is dipped in quite pungent and attractive perfume. Hex box of 20 sticks bought for only 47p from Indiabazaar on Amazon - though the price is currently 60p direct from Indiabazaar's own (slow to load) website.

The sticks are made by Darshan International of Bangalore who claim they have been in existence for five decades, while being founded in 1987 and 2000.

The fragrance is firm and heady without being assertive or over-bearing. It is soft, seductive, welcoming and very pleasing. My preference is for masala incense, but occasionally a perfume dipped incense will quite impress and excite me, as this one does. Experience, sadly, tends to show that perfume dipped sticks don't retain their fresh and natural bouquet for long - and subsequent burnings tend to reveal flaws, particularly where synthetic perfumes have been used. The perfumes may become stale and unpleasant. At the moment, however, this one is fresh and very relaxing and attractive. I would be inclined to buy this again.

Score: 30 - August 2013

***

Top Ten Perfume-Dipped
Incense Sticks

Darshan Incense

Vanilla

What's The Best Incense In The World?

Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Satya (Original - pre 2014) Aastha

Aastha is a Hindu girl's name - the box translates it as "The Trust", though it is more commonly translated as "Faith". This is a typical Satya product - a fine quality masala of fragrant ingredients around a charcoal core. The aroma is sweet, heady, quite soft, rich and opulent. There are warm spice notes around a sandalwood base. It lingers pleasantly creating a relaxed and gently seductive atmosphere. It is notably better than most Indian incense, which tend to be charcoal sticks dipped in synthetic perfumes, but is one of the weaker Satya fragrances, being a little too mild, and lacking in focus or distinction.

£1.59 for 15 grams from incense-essentials.co.uk. Generally incense sticks are around 1 gram each, so the weight would give an indication of how many sticks there are, though this will vary.

Date: Aug, 2013 Score: 30

Some sticks left over from 2013. The fragrance has gone. Smells more of the core material. It clearly is important to burn this incense when fresh.

Date: Sept 2015 Score: Not given.

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Satya Sai Baba is the brand name used by the Indian incense company Shrinivas Sugandhalaya of Bangalore. Their incense sticks and cones are high quality; hand-rolled from a masala of well chosen crushed fragrant ingredients around a charcoal base. The company use halmaddi, a traditional fragrant resin, though the use may have changed or declined over the years according to some users. They make the world's most famous and acclaimed incense, Satya Nag Champa.

The Shrinivas Sugandhalaya company was founded in 1964 by Shri Satyam Setty from small premises in Mumbai.It has expanded to now employ approximately 2,500 workers in manufacturing facilities in Bangalore and Mumbai, and since the death of Setty in 2000 or 1999, the company has been run by his two sons, Balkrishna Setty and Nagaraj Setty. At an unclear time in 2014, and for unclear reasons, the partnership between the sons was split, both retaining use of the name and logo of the original Satya company. Nagraj Setty formed Shrinivas Sugandhalaya LLP in Mumbai on 8 Sept 2014. Balkrishna Setty formed Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (BNG) LLP in Bangalore on 21 Nov 2014.

Balkrishna Setty's HQ in Bangalore

According to some websites (not verified as fact) Balkrishna had been involved in the manufacture of the incenses, had worked closely with his father, and had personally developed Super Hit. The Bangalore site had been the centre of the manufacturing for the original Satya company. Nagraj had been in charge of distribution, and had all the distribution contacts. The Mumbai site had been the centre of distribution for the original Satya company. In Dec 2016 a case was filed in at least one state court in America by Balkrishna Setty (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (BNG) LLP) alleging unfair practises by Nagraj Setty (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya LLP). The claims are that Nagraj Setty sometimes uses machines to make incense, while Balkrishna Setty only uses hand rolling methods; the claim is that customers prefer hand rolled incense, and so Balkrishna Setty's incense is more popular. In order to mislead people, and to suppress competition, Nagraj Setty advertised his products using Balkrishna Setty's Bangalore address. He has also sent out cease and desist notices to all USA distributors, claiming that Balkrishna Setty is infringing on his trademarks and copyrights. I don't have any information on the outcome of the court case - I don't know if it has been heard yet.

I will be endeavouring where possible to indicate on my reviews which of the two companies was responsible for the incense being reviewed.

As of 2018, the two brothers have developed new logos, which clearly indicate which is responsible for the product in the packets. Recent incense from Nagraj which uses the new logo is of better quality as he is now using workers in Bangalore, some of whom may have experience of working in his father's incense factory.

2014 was the year that the two brothers split Satya into two companies, with Nagaraj, who had been in charge of distribution, initially commissioning the production of the sticks he sold until he later established his own incense factory in Bangalore (is this accurate?), the city where Satya production had been based since the 1960s.

Top left: original logo - Top right: Mumbai 1st
Bottom left: Bangalore - Bottom right: Mumbai

A Nagaraj logo with the Bangalore address

The new logos and websites:

Nagraj Setty's Shrinivas Sugandhalaya LLP

The distributor

Mumbai - Nagraj

Website: houseofnagchampa.com

***

Balkrishna Setty's Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (BNG) LLP

The manufacturer

Bengaluru - Balkrishna

Previous logo, registered 2014

Website: satyaincense.com

The British incense and ethnic goods distributor Aargee contracted Satya to make a number of incense sticks under the Aargee and Stamford brand. In 2011, Aargee developed 12 new fragrances with Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (link dead) to be sold exclusively through the Stamford brand. The two companies have listed 24 fragrances they make together. (link dead).