Another very pleasant modern scent.
[Added 2024]: These sticks are made by Balarama of Thailand, who are quite possibly also the source for Kuumba incense.
Date: Jan 2018 Score: 33
***
 |
| Balarama Foil-wrapped |
 |
| Moroccan Bazaar Discontinued |
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Balarama Moroccan Bazaar White Linen
Another very pleasant modern scent.
[Added 2024]: These sticks are made by Balarama of Thailand, who are quite possibly also the source for Kuumba incense.
Date: Jan 2018 Score: 33
Coconut incense
Coconuts are used in Hindu rituals, and are regarded as something that attracts Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, so it is good to keep one in the house, or burn one before ceremonies. That is possibly why there are several companies which produce coconut scented incense. On the whole I don't think coconut works for me as an incense scent, as I tend to score low any coconut incense.
Reviews
 |
Score: 28 |
 |
| HEM Coconut Mango (P) Dec 2024 - Score: 22 |
 |
| Tangy Gifts Black Coconut Score: 22 |
 |
| BIC Coco (P) Oct 2023 - Score: 22 |
 |
| GR International Coconut (cones) Score: 22 |
 |
| HEM Coconut Incense Cones Score: 22 |
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| Milo's Temple Coconut (M) Feb 2024 - Score: 17 |
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| Tulasi Coconut Score 18 |
 |
| Bhakta Coconut Score: 15 |
 |
| ScentedAndMore Coconut Cones Score: 10 |
Number of scents: 10
Top score: 28
Low score: 10
Average top five: 22
Total score: 19
***
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| Best Scents |
Balarama Tangy Gifts Black Coconut
I bought this online from Head In The Clouds, a hippy shop in Norwich which has been going since 1971. It looks just like the old head shops I used to visit in Portobello Road back in the day. Tangy Gifts are a trade supplier to hippy shops and dope shops. The sticks are the same as Zam Zam - it's just another trading name.
This is a darker, more sombre, and less appealing scent that most of the other foil wrapped incense I've been trying. It's kind of interesting, but is failing for me. There's a sort of damp mould combined with old paint smell from this. On the stick there is a sort of hairy coconut scent, combined with paint and turpentine. Hmmm. On the whole I'm not getting into this. It's not ugly or offensive - and there is something compelling and intriguing about the darker and less usual scents coming from this, but it's not for me.
[Added 2024]: These sticks are made by Balarama of Thailand, who are quite possibly also the source for Kuumba incense.
Date: Jan 2018 Score: 22
***
|
| Balarama Foil-wrapped |
 |
| Coconut incense |
Balarama Zam Zam African Cush
African Cush is a wonderful name. It only appears to be used for this particular foil-wrapped incense - Moroccan Bazaar and Zam Zam use the name, so supporting the notion that Zam Zam have taken over Moroccan Bazaar. There is a "Land of Cush" in the Bible, which may have been in Arabia, or Africa, or both. If it was in Africa, then it was most likely to be Ethiopia. To add interest, there is an ancient and known Kingdom of Kush, which was in present day Sudan - an area between Egypt and Ethiopia.
As with other foil wrapped incense, there is a pleasant sweetness to the stick which does translate into the scent when burning. It is a light, floral scent, with that pleasant sweetness, and an underlying hint of musk. It kinda feels like a modern designer scent, and has a similarity to not only other foil wrapped incense, but also Tree of Life incense - particularly Shalimar, and Angel Wings by Regent House - all of whom are British. I like these scents - they are delicate, attractive, clean, fun, and quite modern.
[Added 2024]: These sticks are made by Balarama of Thailand, who are quite possibly also the source for Kuumba incense.
Monday, 8 January 2018
Balarama Moroccan Bazaar Cinnamon
There's a sweetish spice which hovers around cinnamon, but could be any of the ingredients in all-spice. There's wood notes - cedarwood and beech sawdust. And a sort of raw meat smell that you when walking past a butcher's shop. It is a bit basic when burned - more of the base material makes it through than the scent itself. It's not offensive, but is a bit limited.
[Added 2024]: These sticks are made by Balarama of Thailand, who are quite possibly also the source for Kuumba incense.
Sunday, 7 January 2018
Hari Om Sambrani
Since reviewing this in January I have been exploring benzoin a little more. I have burned some sambrani cups, which are the latest trend in India, and just starting to creep into the UK and America, and I have been burning benzoin resin in my electric burner. And I have been learning a bit more about the ritual/spiritual/religious aspect of incense burning. After a discussion on the FaceBook group Incense Corner I became aware that ritual incense is not burned for the aesthetic quality of the scent, but for the healing or spiritual qualities. A pleasing scent is secondary to the cleansing or enriching nature of the incense smoke.
While there are some pleasing aspects to this incense, it is primarily intended to be a convenient way of burning benzoin and of providing the cleansing power of the resin which can ward off negative energies. In India sambrani/benzoin is burned frequently - it is the most common ritual incense, and is used for a variety of purposes, including fragrancing and drying the hair, and helping babies sleep.
I am less keen on this scent this time round, especially after experiencing other sambrani scents. It's a bit neutral and mineral, and tends to be a little too smoky and harsh for aesthetic use. As a sambrani substitute, providing a similar scent in a convenient low cost way, it has its uses, but for non-ritual use I find the scent not that pleasing.
Date: July 2018 Score: 30
A machine extruded, perfume-dipped incense from Hari Om, which appears to be in the Divine Incense line, but is tagged instead as "Loban Incense". My understanding of loban and benzoin, is that they are the same thing - the resin from the storax or snowbell tree. It reminds me a little of Ambica Pooja Sambrani, there is some rich pine resin which is close to petrol fumes, a little bit of prickly lavender, underscored by a hint of musk and sandalwood. It's a bloody good aroma. It got me to dig out my Ambica Sambrani to remind me of what that was like, and I have to say I liked the Ambica more than this Hari Om because the Ambica is way more intense and natural, but both are scents that intrigue and excite me, so I am keen to explore benzoin / loban / sambrani a little more.
Date: Jan 2018 Score: 35
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| Hari Om Fragrance |
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| Spiritual/Ritual Incense |
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| Top Ten Perfume-Dipped Incense |
Saturday, 6 January 2018
Incense in India
India is the main incense producing country, and is a healthy exporter to other countries (though export sales have been troubled by increasing costs of the raw materials, and by other factors, such as Western countries buying unperfumed sticks, and by Indian companies producing fakes or imitations). Incense burning has taken place in India for thousands of years, and India exported the idea to China and Japan, and other Asian countries. A uniform and codified system of incense-making first began in India. Although Vedic texts mention the use of incense for masking odors and creating a pleasurable smell, the modern system of organized incense-making was likely created by the medicinal priests of the time. Thus, modern, organized incense-making is intrinsically linked to the Ayurvedic medical system in which it is rooted.
The oldest source on incense is the set of sacred Hindu texts, the Vedas, particularly the Atharva Veda and the Rig Veda, which set out and encouraged a uniform method of making incense. Although the texts mention the use of incense for masking odours and creating a pleasurable smell, the modern system of organized incense-making was likely created by the medicinal priests of the time. So, modern, organized incense-making is linked to the Ayurvedic medical system in which it is rooted. The method of incense making with a bamboo stick as a core originated in India at the end of the 19th century, largely replacing the rolled, extruded or shaped method which is still used in India for dhoops and cones, and for most shapes of incense in Nepal/Tibet and Japan. Other main forms of incense are cones and logs and benzoin resin (sambrani), which are incense paste formed into pyramid shapes or log shapes, and then dried.
Dhoop is the older form of incense making which spread to other Asian countries such as China, Nepal, and Japan where it remains as the principle incense making process. Dhoop incense doesn't use a bamboo stick. The wood paste, binders and fragrant ingredients are mixed together as a masala and allowed to dry, though some dhoops contain ingredients such as honey and ghee which keep them moist - these are known as wet dhoop, and such dhoops were traditionally made in the North of India.
Incense made with bamboo sticks was originally a Mysore tradition, that, under two Mysore businessmen, T.L. Upadyaya and Attar Khasim Saheb, became an organised industry which introduced the use of a central bamboo stick around 1900 as a way to simplify and speed up production as it could be taught easily to women who could make the sticks at home.. Mysore incense with a bamboo stick core was exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, and distributed as gifts to influential people in the West. As such, incense with bamboo sticks became the most prominent form of incense in India, largely, though not completely, replacing the older dhoop style. Mysore incense has recently been granted geographical indication status by the Indian government after an application in 2005 by the All India Agarbathi Manufacturers Association.
The main method of burning incense in India is the incense stick or agarbathi. The basic ingredients of an incense stick are bamboo sticks, paste (generally made of charcoal dust or sawdust and joss/jiggit/gum/tabu powder – an adhesive made from the bark of litsea glutinosa and other trees), and the perfume ingredients – which traditionally would be a masala powder of ground ingredients, though more commonly is a solvent of perfumes and/or essential oils. After the base paste has been applied to the bamboo stick, it is either, in the traditional method, while still moist, immediately rolled into the masala, or, more commonly, left for several days to dry, and then dipped into the scented solvent.
Various resins, such as amber, myrrh, frankincense, and halmaddi are used in traditional masala incense, usually as a fragrant binding ingredient, and these will add their distinctive fragrance to the finished incense. Some resins, such as gum Arabic, may be used where it is desirable for the binding agent to have no fragrance of its own. Halmaddi has a particular interest to Western consumers, possibly through its association with the popular Satya Nag Champa. It is an earth coloured liquid resin drawn from the Ailanthus triphysa tree; as with other resins, it is a viscous semi-liquid when fresh, it hardens to a brittle solid as it evaporates and ages. Some incense makers mix it with honey in order to keep it pliable. Due to crude extraction methods which resulted in trees dying, by the 1990s the Forest Department in India had banned resin extraction; this forced up the price of halmaddi, so its usage in incense making declined. In 2011, extraction was allowed under leasing agreements, which increased in 2013, though production is still sufficiently limited for the resin to sometimes be stolen via improper extraction to be sold on the black market.
Companies:
* Satya: 37
* Goloka: 37
* Aromatika: 35The oldest source on incense is the set of sacred Hindu texts, the Vedas, particularly the Atharva Veda and the Rig Veda, which set out and encouraged a uniform method of making incense. Although the texts mention the use of incense for masking odours and creating a pleasurable smell, the modern system of organized incense-making was likely created by the medicinal priests of the time. So, modern, organized incense-making is linked to the Ayurvedic medical system in which it is rooted. The method of incense making with a bamboo stick as a core originated in India at the end of the 19th century, largely replacing the rolled, extruded or shaped method which is still used in India for dhoops and cones, and for most shapes of incense in Nepal/Tibet and Japan. Other main forms of incense are cones and logs and benzoin resin (sambrani), which are incense paste formed into pyramid shapes or log shapes, and then dried.
Dhoop is the older form of incense making which spread to other Asian countries such as China, Nepal, and Japan where it remains as the principle incense making process. Dhoop incense doesn't use a bamboo stick. The wood paste, binders and fragrant ingredients are mixed together as a masala and allowed to dry, though some dhoops contain ingredients such as honey and ghee which keep them moist - these are known as wet dhoop, and such dhoops were traditionally made in the North of India.
Incense made with bamboo sticks was originally a Mysore tradition, that, under two Mysore businessmen, T.L. Upadyaya and Attar Khasim Saheb, became an organised industry which introduced the use of a central bamboo stick around 1900 as a way to simplify and speed up production as it could be taught easily to women who could make the sticks at home.. Mysore incense with a bamboo stick core was exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, and distributed as gifts to influential people in the West. As such, incense with bamboo sticks became the most prominent form of incense in India, largely, though not completely, replacing the older dhoop style. Mysore incense has recently been granted geographical indication status by the Indian government after an application in 2005 by the All India Agarbathi Manufacturers Association.
The main method of burning incense in India is the incense stick or agarbathi. The basic ingredients of an incense stick are bamboo sticks, paste (generally made of charcoal dust or sawdust and joss/jiggit/gum/tabu powder – an adhesive made from the bark of litsea glutinosa and other trees), and the perfume ingredients – which traditionally would be a masala powder of ground ingredients, though more commonly is a solvent of perfumes and/or essential oils. After the base paste has been applied to the bamboo stick, it is either, in the traditional method, while still moist, immediately rolled into the masala, or, more commonly, left for several days to dry, and then dipped into the scented solvent.
Various resins, such as amber, myrrh, frankincense, and halmaddi are used in traditional masala incense, usually as a fragrant binding ingredient, and these will add their distinctive fragrance to the finished incense. Some resins, such as gum Arabic, may be used where it is desirable for the binding agent to have no fragrance of its own. Halmaddi has a particular interest to Western consumers, possibly through its association with the popular Satya Nag Champa. It is an earth coloured liquid resin drawn from the Ailanthus triphysa tree; as with other resins, it is a viscous semi-liquid when fresh, it hardens to a brittle solid as it evaporates and ages. Some incense makers mix it with honey in order to keep it pliable. Due to crude extraction methods which resulted in trees dying, by the 1990s the Forest Department in India had banned resin extraction; this forced up the price of halmaddi, so its usage in incense making declined. In 2011, extraction was allowed under leasing agreements, which increased in 2013, though production is still sufficiently limited for the resin to sometimes be stolen via improper extraction to be sold on the black market.
Companies:
* Satya: 37
* Goloka: 37
* Aargee Incense: 32
* GR International: 29
* GR International: 29
* Mahendra Perfumery Works: 26
* Auroshika Incense: 24
* HEM Corporation: 23
* Gopal Joie incense: 22
Incense sticks, also known as agarbathi (or agarbatti) and joss sticks, in which an incense paste is rolled or moulded around a bamboo stick, is one of the main forms of incense in India. The method is believed to have started in India, and is distinct from the Nepal/Tibet and Japanese methods of stick making which don't use a bamboo core. Though the method is also used in the west, particularly in America, it is strongly associated with India.
The basic ingredients are the bamboo stick, the paste (generally made of charcoal dust and joss/jiggit/gum/tabu powder - an adhesive made from the bark of litsea glutinosa and other trees), and the perfume ingredients - which would be a masala powder of ground ingredients into which the stick would be rolled, or a perfume liquid sometimes consisting of synthetic ingredients into which the stick would be dipped. Stick machines are sometimes used, which coat the stick with paste and perfume, though the bulk of production is done by hand rolling at home. There are about 5,000 incense companies in India which take raw unperfumed sticks hand-rolled by approx 2000,000 women working part-time at home, and then apply their own brand of perfume, and package the sticks for sale. There are about 25 main companies who together account for up to 30% of the market, and around 500 of the companies, including a significant number of the main ones, are based in Bangalore.
Some ingredients
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| Incense by Country |
Balarama Moroccan Bazaar Cherry
Moroccan Bazaar are a UK incense distribution company who were formed in 1970. They stopped making incense just before August 2017. They seemed to specialise in foil wrapped incense, an operation that is carried on by Zam Zam. There are similarities and differences between Moroccan Bazaar incense and Zam Zam incense. They have the same scents, and the method appears to be the same - though the Moroccan Bazaar incense has a mottled appearance. This could be due to a slight difference in production methods, age, or contamination in storage. I don't know. The aroma is cherry. A pleasant enough dark red fruit aroma with a touch of sweetness and acidity. Quite good. But it is felt more on the edges than in the full, as the base material intrudes. This is a particular problem with older perfume-dipped incense, and I think this one is probably a year or more old. I don't feel the foil wrapping is really keeping it fresh, as air can enter through the unexposed bottom where the stick ends are. I don't care f or the foil wrapping - I find it awkward to access the sticks. I feel it's more about the marketing and the low cost than anything else.
Anyway. It's an OK, long burning and pleasant enough scent that gently informs the room with a cheerful fruit aroma. It's on a par with the other foil wrapped incense I've had, though at the lower end of the range.
[Added 2024]: These sticks are made by Balarama of Thailand, who are quite possibly also the source for Kuumba incense.
Date: Jan 2018 Score: 30
***
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| Balarama foil-wrapped incense |
|
| Moroccan Bazaar Discontinued |
Balarama Enterprises Thailand
There are a number of foil wrapped incense brands here in the UK - Mystic Incense, Red Dragon (Ancient Wisdom), Moroccan Bazaar, Tangy Gifts, Zam Zam, Famous Fragrance, etc. Each packet tends to contain between eighteen to twenty sticks around 13 - 13 1/2 inches long. The sticks are bamboo, coated with a paste which apparently contains cypress, tabu bark, and Chinese juniper. The stick is then dipped in a perfume solvent of fragrance oils giving a sweet, modern scent. They all carry the same scent range (African Cush, Black Love, Baby Powder, etc), have very similar packaging (apart from the Red Dragon), and all (apart from the Red Dragon) say they are made in the UK. I looked on American sites, and these are same brands sold in the US, and all are shipped from the UK. They retail for between £1.20 and £2.60 (average price seems to be £1.99), with trade prices around 30p - 40p per packet, which would include labour and materials. I assume that the blanks are being imported from somewhere like Vietnam, and then dipped en-mass here with a perfume solvent made here, and quickly wrapped in foil. I don't know who makes them. Moroccan Bazaar - who stopped production in July 2017 - have been making incense in the UK since 1970, while Zam Zam were founded in 1980. It might be that Moroccan Bazaar have sold the production to Zam Zam.
Further research points to these sticks being made by Balarama of Thailand. Balarama produces incense for companies in Europe and America, and they are one of the main sources for the modern Spiritual Sky incense (which used to be awesome in the 70s). While not 100% certain, they are highly likely to be the source for Kuumba incense. They look the same, burn the same, are made from the same material, are the same size, smell the same, and even use the same names.
I find it interesting that Balarama incense is sold as own brand incense mainly by clothing retailers, such as Zam Zam and Wicked Dragon, or online shops that otherwise don't sell incense. The scents are not conventional incense scents, they are bright, modern, and different - even the standard single scents like sandalwood and frankincense have a modern twist. There is a big market out there of people who are not attracted to the old hippy-dippy image of incense, and wouldn't think to go into an incense shop either online or on the high street. So placing modern perfumed incense in clothing retailers, or - like Kuumba, associating the incense with trendy clothing firms like Carhartt, brings the incense in reach of a new, young audience, and makes incense cool and acceptable.
Reviews
 |
| Zam Zam Bakhoor (P) Oct 2024 - Score: 36 |
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| Zam Zam Black Love Nov 2024 - Score: 35↑↓[Average 35] |
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| Mystic Incense Pink Sugar Brand discontinued Jan 2015 - Score: 35* |
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| Zam Zam Millionaire (P) Nov 2024 - Score: 35 |
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| Spiritual Sky Frankincense & Myrrh (P) Nov 2024 - Score: 25↓ [Average 30] |
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| Zam Zam Ladies Night (P) Oct 2024 - Score: 34 |
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| Balarama Wicked Dragon Vanilla (P) Dec 2024 - Score: 34 |
|
| Moroccan Bazaar White Linen (P) Jan 2018 - Score: 33* |
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| Zam Zam Angel Style (P) Nov 2024 - Score: 32 |
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| Red Dragon Tibetan Musk (P) June 2015 - Score: 31* |
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| Zam Zam Dewberry (P) Nov 2024 - Score: 31 |
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| Balarama Wicked Dragon Nag Champa (P) Dec 2024 - Score: 31 |
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| Mystic Incense (closed) Baby Powder Sept 2013 - Score: 30* |
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| Zam Zam Jamaican Breeze Jan 2018 - Score: 30* |
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| Zam Zam Sandalwood (P) Nov 2024 - Score: 30 |
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| Kuumba Carhartt (P) Oct 2024 - Score: 29 |
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| Moroccan Bazaar Woodland (P) Oct 2024 - Score: 28 |
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| Zam Zam Frankincense (P) Nov 2024 - Score: 27 |
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| Spiritual Sky Frankincense Sept 2017 - Score: 25* |
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Dec 2025 - Score: 25 |
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| Moroccan Bazaar Cinnamon Jan 2018 - Score: 24* |
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| Tangy Gifts Love Me (P) Oct 2024 - Score: 24 |
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| Tangy Gifts Black Coconut Jan 2018 - Score: 22* |
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| Zam Zam Black Velvet (P) June 2015 - Score: 18 |
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| Asoke Govinda Nag Champa Oct 2022 - Score: 18 |
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| Balarama Divine Spirit (P) May 2013 - Score: 18* |
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| Moroccan Bazaar Cherry Wood (P) Oct 2024 - Score: 17 |
Scents reviewed: 30
Top score: 38
Low score: 17
Average: 30
Low score: 17
Average: 30
Conclusion: Borderline Average/Decent everyday modern room freshener perfumed incense made by a Thailand company which specialises in producing room fragrance incense for various retail companies. Generally likeable, fun, and good value (unless buying under the Kuumba brand name).
****
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