Ganesha Gardenia

Budget priced incense sticks made in India for Cha Cha Dum Dum, an ethnic gifts company founded in Kensington in 1968. Cha Cha sell them wholesale for 20p a packet (30 sticks per packet), and they can be bought online from eBay or incense-essentials for around 50p a pack. Ganesha is one of Cha Cha's brand names. The packs are flat, stiff paper, with rather crude but pleasant Indian designs. The packs are the same across the brand range, with the fragrance being identified by a sticker. The only writing is "Ganesha 30 Natural Incense Sticks" on the front and "Produced in India" on the back. The sticks are hand-rolled onto plain bamboo. It's a slightly gritty pale brown masala incense paste. The scent may come entirely from the masala ingredients - or it may also come from dipped perfume. It's difficult to tell. There's a pine and mint aroma on the stick - quite fresh and clean. There's something pleasantly rustic and simple about the whole thing that is quite charming. The aroma when lit is burning herbs, rather like some Tibet/Nepal and Thailand incense.

Gardenia is a highly scented flower, though apparently cannot be made into a perfume, so gardenia fragrances are approximations using orange blossom, jasmine and sandalwood. These notes are present in this incense, though not to a great degree.

This is a basic incense. But it's not offensive - indeed, it has some crude charms. And it is very cheap. It's not a brand I would buy again, nor is it one I would recommend. I wouldn't burn it in front of guests - but it serves well in the toilet or kitchen to mask mild odours. 

[2024 comment:] These old and originally very cheap, poor quality sticks are being sold on the RedBuddha website for £2.99 a packet. 

Date: Aug 2013    Score: 27

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Cha Cha Dum Dum

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