SAC (Sandesh) Atma Darshan Flora

Very neatly hand rolled charcoal paste, soft and crumbly, around a machine cut undyed bamboo splint. A fine sandy coloured powder is used to coat the paste. Firmly applied with no excess - there are some small glitters in the powder. The scent on the stick is perfumed. Moderately sweet. Very attractive, and - just then, a quick memory of a Spiritual Sky incense from the early Seventies. I love this. Quite woody. Creamy, milky, sweet sandalwood. There is no harsh volatility to the scent, though it is more reminiscent of a liquid fragrance than a solid fragrance. A greater concentration of scent, and a greater focus I suppose. My assumption is that this is a quality sandalwood oil. It is lovely. 

The scent on the burn, sadly, is not as pure. The temperature in the room is comfortable, and there are no wind movements to increase the intensity of the burn so this is burning at the appropriate speed, yet much of the delicate aroma on the stick is not here. Yes, there is some woody fragrance, but there is also an element of burning or scorching, so much of the delicate sweet notes are lost. Having said that, there is still enough of the creamy sandalwood to make this quite an alluring incense. I like it. 

Available all over the world in 15gm packs: Canada for $2.99; UK for 75p; South Africa for R28.00; US for $2.00; Latvia for €1,75; Spain for €1.45; 

Date: April 2023   Score: 38

As part of my investigation into Flora and Fluxo incenses, I'm revisiting this SAC Flora. These are hand-rolled masala incense sticks (I'm correcting my earlier review in which I said they were machine made). There are volatile notes on the stick more suggestive of perfume than essential oil, and this may be the key difference to those incenses which come across as rich and heady (essential oil) and those which are merely pleasant (perfume). I'm not anti-perfume as I find perfumed incenses are able to produce a greater range of scents, and can be more complex and intriguing, but for sheer beauty I incline toward the essential oils. Notes of tobacco, orange groves, sea weed, on the stick. Aroma when burning is less profound and less interesting - the volatiles burn away too quickly, leaving modest mid notes of creamy vanilla and pleasant sandalwood. It's a decent everyday masala, and is excellent value for money. It's not profound, but not all incenses need to be profound, and at this price it is excellent as a casual room freshener. Some woolly, prickly halmaddi rounds it off. Yes, nice one. 

Date: Aug 2021   Score: 34 

15g of proper job masala for 75p from Popat Stores, probably the best value incense store in the UK.

SAC are a major Indian incense manufacturer, and the bulk of their output is everyday perfume-dipped incense - but they also do a few proper job masala incenses, such as this. It's a neatly made machine applied  [2023: correction, these are neatly hand rolled] masala (it's the ingredients, not how they are applied, that has an influence on the aroma, though some people prefer their incense to be entirely hand made, especially if they are using the incense for religious or spiritual reasons). There is some halmaddi in the ingredients, and some sandalwood. Perhaps some vanilla. I am getting more wood tones than floral, but I guess there is a floral element in there somewhere. [2023: the name Flora let me to believe in 2017 that this was intended to be a "floral" incense - I have since learned that the term "flora" refers to a masala style of incense - see Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme]   It's an OK incense - on the same level as the Green Tree I reviewed yesterday, and the Bhagvatti Ppure incense I can buy from my local hardware store. Even though there's not a lot going on, this is a decent incense.  For the price, this is the best deal on decent quality everyday incense that I've come across. These sticks work out at around 5p each. They are warm, woody, gentle, and inform a room with a light sandalwood aroma which lingers for a decent length of time. Nice one.


Date: Aug 2017  Score: 34

***

Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme

SAC (Sandesh)

Best floral incense