I wrote and published this back in June 2018, but then withdrew it - information is missing, so perhaps I accidently deleted some text, and that's why I withdrew it. I'm doing a rummage of my incense stack for some incense exchanges I'm doing, and find the three Mantra packs. I will review them again, but bear in mind that they are no longer available for sale, this is just for historical interest.
Previous text:
I got three packs of Mantra branded incense from "Britain's Oldest Headshop", Head In The Clouds in Norwich. As soon as I lit the first one I felt that this incense was by one of Happy Hari's suppliers. When I burned the Vrindavan Flower I was convinced. I was pleased that someone else was selling Happy Hari quality incense, so I looked up the company Mantra-Life, which was formed in 2014 by an Indian couple in Leicester. Sadly they folded in May of 2018.
This is made by the same producer as made Vrindavan Flower for Happy Hari/Eden Culture and makes for Gokula. This batch or formulation is slightly different though. This is softer and simpler. It has some essential orange oil, which is common to the others, and a soapy quality. But it doesn't have the sharp edge nor the bite that I associate with halmaddi.
This has a glorious sandalwood aroma.
New text:
Vrindavan Flower - a thin charcoal paste has been crudely hand-rolled on a plain hand-cut bamboo splint, and then coated in a wood powder. There is still the sense of an essential oil on the stick. The sub-name is "In Touch with Nature". I dug out a pack of Paul Eagle's Vrindavan Flowers and there are similarities, though I'm not certain they are made by the same source, or, if they are, it's not the same batch. The scent on the burn is quite dry and woody and spicy with a possible suggestion of halmaddi in the mix. The halmaddi would have been put in to hold and amplify the scent of the other fragrant ingredients, though it does have a warm wool scent of its own. It's an OK scent - somewhat vague, but warm, woody, and spicy. It gently informs the room with a calming, relaxing, slightly sensual scent that has a benign authority to encourage a feeling of security. It started slow, but I grew to like it. A decent everyday masala. Score: 32
Golden Meditation - "Free Your Mind", is a healthy looking masala stick and certainly does smell gorgeous with a fragrant, rich, sweet, creamy woody scent. There's sandalwood, tea, bergamot, tobacco, nips of spice, warm wool. Oh, it's nice. As with most proper masala it retains a beautiful scent on the burn. Oooh, this is lovely. Shame it's no longer made. Well, it will be - it's just a question of finding out who sells it, and under what name. This is top end. Love it. Score: 41
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| Vrindavan Flower |
This is made by the same producer as made Vrindavan Flower for Happy Hari/Eden Culture and makes for Gokula. This batch or formulation is slightly different though. This is softer and simpler. It has some essential orange oil, which is common to the others, and a soapy quality. But it doesn't have the sharp edge nor the bite that I associate with halmaddi.
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| Golden Meditation |
This has a glorious sandalwood aroma.
New text:
Vrindavan Flower - a thin charcoal paste has been crudely hand-rolled on a plain hand-cut bamboo splint, and then coated in a wood powder. There is still the sense of an essential oil on the stick. The sub-name is "In Touch with Nature". I dug out a pack of Paul Eagle's Vrindavan Flowers and there are similarities, though I'm not certain they are made by the same source, or, if they are, it's not the same batch. The scent on the burn is quite dry and woody and spicy with a possible suggestion of halmaddi in the mix. The halmaddi would have been put in to hold and amplify the scent of the other fragrant ingredients, though it does have a warm wool scent of its own. It's an OK scent - somewhat vague, but warm, woody, and spicy. It gently informs the room with a calming, relaxing, slightly sensual scent that has a benign authority to encourage a feeling of security. It started slow, but I grew to like it. A decent everyday masala. Score: 32
Golden Meditation - "Free Your Mind", is a healthy looking masala stick and certainly does smell gorgeous with a fragrant, rich, sweet, creamy woody scent. There's sandalwood, tea, bergamot, tobacco, nips of spice, warm wool. Oh, it's nice. As with most proper masala it retains a beautiful scent on the burn. Oooh, this is lovely. Shame it's no longer made. Well, it will be - it's just a question of finding out who sells it, and under what name. This is top end. Love it. Score: 41
Saffron Honey - "Journey of Self Discovery" is even more gorgeous on the stick than the Golden Meditation. There's some great incenses out there to be discovered. Somebody is no doubt selling this under a new name. Saffron, honey, lotus, vanilla, Belgian waffles with cream. Heavenly scents on the stick. This is real proper job masala. Attractive boxes. Shame that the business folded. I have found details of the guy who ran the business, and have reached out to him. I doubt he'll get back to me, but you never know....
It burns a little hot, but the aroma is divine and follows what was promised on the stick. I've been burning a few average to mediocre incenses recently, and it's great to get familiar with a beautiful incense that is touching on World Class. Score: 45
If anyone knows who the maker of these incenses was, and who sells it now, please get in touch. Even if it's only a guess.
I'm giving an overall score for Mantra:
Date: Feb 2023 Score: 42
It burns a little hot, but the aroma is divine and follows what was promised on the stick. I've been burning a few average to mediocre incenses recently, and it's great to get familiar with a beautiful incense that is touching on World Class. Score: 45
If anyone knows who the maker of these incenses was, and who sells it now, please get in touch. Even if it's only a guess.
I'm giving an overall score for Mantra:
Date: Feb 2023 Score: 42
***
I just found this by accident, as I was checking if you reviewed HEM's Mantra.
ReplyDeleteYou sent me a sample of Free Your Mind. I chose not to review it as it is no longer available, and I was also not impressed with it. I'm surprised how high it scored for you.
The raw smell on the one stick you sent me was nice, but on the burn, I found it quite generic and a bit dull. Plus the smoke felt kinda scratchy.
Maybe my stick was a dud?
I think what we've both noticed over the years of reviewing incense, is that there can be considerable variation in olfactory experience. The same incense in a different room, at a different temperature, with a different mind set or mood, can result in a surprisingly different experience.
DeleteScent is the most subtle and complex of the senses. Studies have shown that individuals react differently to the same scents - sometimes markedly so. This doesn't happen with the other senses. Scent is linked with our hormones, so how we respond to what we smell can differ with our mood.
And I have noted that if I get a thought or opinion in my mind about an incense, then that can block objective study.
I always think that what is true is our response. The rest is just colouring. There have been well made incenses that I haven't enjoyed. And cheap and cheerful, crude stuff which has made me happy.
And along with ourselves, the room we're in, the ventilation, the time of day, etc, is the incense itself. I think there is likely to be more variation with incense that has oils/perfumes applied externally. The amount of perfume added can vary, and the amount of evaporation can vary.
What I find remarkable is when incense is consistent burn after burn. And when people around the world share the shame olfactory experience from that incense. That's quite stunning actually.
I wonder who makes this incense - and under what name it is sold today?
"What I find remarkable is when incense is consistent burn after burn. And when people around the world share the shame olfactory experience from that incense. That's quite stunning actually."
DeleteThat's very true and a rare occurrence.
It's entirely possible they are no longer made.
Last year, I discovered the brand Sonnentag who rebranded incense from an Indian manufacturer. They told me they have to look for a new supplier because this former company didn't survive the covid phase. It's sad because I liked several of the scents I tried quite a bit.
https://blog.rauchfahne.de/en/category/reviews-en/reviews-sorted-by-brand/sonnentag-en/
It's a highly competitive market, and I can imagine that it happens quite often that manufacturers go out of business for all sorts of reasons.
I would be sad if it were no longer made. I liked it.
DeleteI was thinking about you, and your opposite reaction to this incense today after I had just re-reviewed
Hari Darshan Tales of India Maharani Dream
. I was thinking of sending you a sample, then took a look and noted that you had already reviewed it, and somewhat hated it.
Curiously I had also somewhat dismissed it when I first reviewed it. Liked it enormously when I next reviewed it. And liked it again today, though not quite as much.
Several very different reactions to the very same incense!
Hormones rule our world.
Funny coincidence that you mention the Tales of India line now, as they were the topic of some discussion in the r/incense comments just lately. https://www.reddit.com/r/Incense/comments/1je3tma/giant_haul_goloka_vijayshree_golden_nag_orkay/
DeleteOr did you read that and decided to revisit Maharani Dream because of this?
No, that's just one of those delightful synchronicity moments that Jung talked about.
DeleteMy Chrissie has the firm belief that Facebook listens to her conversations through her phone. She says she often talks about something, and then a related advert pops up on Facebook in a day or two. I say it's synchronicity, but she prefers to believe she is being spied on.
I think that when we become aware of or interested in something (or someone), we notice that (or them) more often. Our senses and our mind have become alert to that pattern, which is becoming more meaningful.
I'm not completely with Jung. but I am with him in the sense that we look for alternative meanings to unrelated causal events, and that our search for those meanings are useful to study in relation to what they say about ourselves.
You say that your Maharani Dream was machine extruded and perfume dipped. Mine was hand-rolled, and more in line with Hari Darshan's domestic product than the Western perfumed-masala they have been exporting. Maharani Dream is certainly one of their exports for the Western market, but it seems to me to walk a fine line between flora incense and perfumed-masala incense. I'll pop a couple of sticks in your sample box - it would be interesting to compare with your machine-extruded version. Several people have been telling me that the paste formulation for machine-extruded incense is different to that of hand-rolled, with a suggestion that it is less good. I'm curious as to if a machine-extruded formulation is much different to an Asian dhoop formulation. There are not many hand-rolled Japanese incense. Would the implication be that if Japanese incense were hand-rolled it would actually be better, because the formulation would be looser and better allow the scents to unfold?
DeleteI'm really unsure of this machine-extruded v hand-rolled argument. I've tended to find machine-extruded to burn more consistently, and to have fewer burn problems.
Anyway. I'll pop a couple of sticks in. Unless you scream at me not to!
"You say that your Maharani Dream was machine extruded and perfume dipped. Mine was hand-rolled"
DeleteOh, interesting! I'll ask the person from the reddit post how theirs look.
I don't have those anymore, so I can only compare based on my notes.
Yeah, the whole machine-extruded vs. hand-rolled thing... There are so many different approaches to make incense. I repeatedly see this in discussions with other incense makers (be it hobbyists or pros). We sometimes even disagree on what is possible because we follow entirely different "schools" so to speak.
For example, Georg Huber (Jeomra) once told me he thinks it is not possible to make Patchouli incense using the herb (vs. essential oil). Dave & Smey (The World Makes Scents) made patchouli incense (cones and sticks) only based on the herb. I made sticks using the herb.
Is one of us in the wrong? I don't think so. We simply make very different types of incense.
My point is, if you see it from the perspective of making a certain type of Indian, hand rolled incense, yes, trying to make kind of the same incense work for an extruder will result in a less good end product.
That doesn't mean extruded incense is inherently bad or less good than hand rolled. Nor does it mean that hand rolling an incense (with a formula made for extrusion) would improve it.
Fact is, if you extrude your incense, you have to accustom your formula according to this. That may include many aspects, from the binder choice to how finely the ingredients are ground.
I should imagine the main component to consider would be the combustible. Wood powder I note tends to result in a hard, firm, dried paste - certainly firmer and tighter than a charcoal paste. And extruded sticks tend to be firmer and tighter. I should imagine that trying to perfume dip a machine extruded wood paste stick would be more problematic than trying to perfume dip a hand-rolled charcoal paste stick, and would require a period of experimentation and adjustment.
Delete