Al Haramain Bukhoor Al Watani

This is my first experience with bukhoor incense - an Arabian/Persian incense which is created from agarwood soaked in fragrant oils. I love agarwood anyway, so already I know I am going to like this. Al Haramain, as I understand it, is one of the leading Arabian incense companies, so I bought four different bukhoor blocks on eBay for £10.  And then I wanted a proper bukhoor burner, or mabkhara, and these days they are electric, which makes things so much quicker, easier, and safer than using charcoal. Unfortunately the first one I ordered has still not arrived, so - impatient to get started, I ordered another one on eBay from tawakkalperfumes for £5.45 plus postage, and it arrived today - the next day.  The burner is so easy to use - I cut open the bukhoor packet, and break off a bit of the moist and crumbly incense which is inside a small plastic container, and simply drop it into the dish at the top of the burner, and turn on the switch. It takes a moment to warm up and then the incense fills the air. On first use there are some oils that get burned off, so there is a slightly unpleasant smell of onion sweat - you know that sweat from someone who eats a lot of onions. Yes. Hmm. But once that goes, and it just appears to be the very first time, everything is OK.

This Al Watani is lovely. There is a bold sweetness about it when first approaching it, then in comes some balancing astringent cologne. It is quite a perfumed incense, but that balance of sweetness and sharpness, keeps it all interesting. There's oranges, and herbs, and cool, damp sand on a summer's day. This is a shifting, exotic, and at all times gentle incense. There is a lot going on, but it never happens at the same time - it shifts and melds, and changes gradually and surprisingly - something new slipping along to surprise you. Absolutely stunning! I really love this, and it has got me excited about incense again. I particularly love that it all smells alive and natural, and I am not getting the abrasive qualities I get from a lot of Indian masala incense, or the chemical harshness I find in some dipped perfume incense. Nor am I getting the smoky, earthy, cow dung of the Tibetan and Chinese incense I've tried. And it has more presence and vitality than Japanese incense I've tried, and at a much lower cost.  I think I may have discovered in this Arabian incense, a whole new, exciting world to explore - and one that seems to suit me exactly! Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Date: March 2017   Score: 45

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