Charcoal paste hand rolled onto a stick and then dipped or sprayed with perfume. Sage Spirit packets cost between £2.50 and £3.50 for a pack of 12 sticks that last approx 30 minutes, with a "gentle", "subtle" or "faint" fragrance, depending on your viewpoint. The scent on the stick is lovely - modern, fresh, and inviting. There are citric notes, hints of parma violets and iodine, spices and bees wax, underlined with warm musk. It is a very attractive and seductive smell - fairly sophisticated for a stick of incense.
Some of the more interesting and sophisticated aromas in incense do seem to come from the sticks which are perfume dipped, and I suspect that is because there is a greater range of aromas available to the manufacturers. These scents are comparable to eau de toilette or eau de parfum, though there is both an advantage and disadvantage to that, and it's each to their own on what they like. I like natural and traditional incense. I like that incense is made from ingredients that are found in nature. When the aromatic character comes from a perfume I wonder how natural it is - though perfume in itself can be natural and traditional. Liquid scent has been made in a natural and traditional manner for as long as dried incense has - the two are related, and the aromatic ingredients come from the same sources. One is ground down into a fine powder and rolled onto a paste, and then burned, the other is ground down and mixed with oil or alcohol, and then allowed to evaporate, or - when used as an incense ingredient - burned, which causes a rapid evaporation. Perfume dipped incense in itself isn't in any way inferior to dry masala incense; it is the the perfume itself that needs to be queried. Is the perfume natural - as it is with Sage Spirit incense - or is it cheaply synthesised, resulting in a harsh, toilet cleaner aroma?
I blow hot and cold with Sage Spirit. The first time I burned some I got so excited. I loved the scent - it felt natural, it felt modern, it felt invigorating. I loved the idea that Apache Indians were making the incense - developing their traditional sage smudge burning into something modern and exciting and liberating. But then I got distracted with stories of how inferior it was to use perfume as a fragrance source in incense, because traditionally it should be dry ingredient, and doubt set in about the quality of the incense. And this, coupled with the very soft nature of the scent when burning, and an awareness of the charcoal and the alcohol present, led me away from Sage Spirit. Indeed, leads me away from even the best of the perfume dipped incenses. They smell so much better on the stick than when burned. I think the aromas are exciting, and when made well, perfume dipped incense can hold its head up high, but all too often the natural perfumes when burned are too faint, and can reveal too much of the combustible base and/or the solvent, or the perfumes are synthetic and don't feel natural.
This stick when burned is fairly meaningless and mediocre. The hope and promise of what is on the stick is not there at all when burned. I smell the stick and I get excited about Sage Spirit again. But I burn the stick, and my excitement is gone. I feel disappointed and cheated. Again.
Score: 20
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