Incense in The Wind: Aasha Aromatics Dragons Blood

Perfumed incense is the most popular incense in India, and is what most Indians burn everyday at home or in the temples. Aasha Aromatics are an independent incense maker in Ahmedabad, the former capital of the ancient Indian state of Gujarat which has a history stretching back to the Indus Valley Civilisation, one of the original three cradles of civilisation. The company was founded forty years ago, and is owned and run by Vikram. They put together decent everyday incense packs of some of the most popular scents, including this Dragon's Blood

Dragon's Blood has a great name, and a compelling appearance of dusky red. It has a long history as an incense, a medicine, and various other uses. It is a legendary and almost mythical substance, with some uncertainty as to the exact original ancient source. It comes from a variety of plants - anciently it mainly came from either dracaena cinnabari, the dragon blood tree, or dracaena draco, the Canary Islands dragon tree - which is depicted in Bosch's painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights; modern dragon's blood mostly comes from the fruit of daemonorops draco, the dragon's blood palm, which grows in Southeast Asia. This Dragon's Blood is imported from India, though is likely to have been harvested in Vietnam or the Philippines.

Thomas Kinkele, the German author of Incense And Incense Rituals, says of dragon's blood:

"dark/tart somewhat gum-like burnt smelling fragrance ... indecisiveness and timidity are transformed with an intense burst of fire into strength and courage".

As with most other Dragon's Blood I have burned I find this quite minerally and flinty, though it also has a warming hint of musk. A little dry for my taste, and betraying its solvent origin, it is however, proving to be a popular purchase in my eBay shop: IncenseInTheWind, and I find it to be a reasonable everyday incense.

Date: Oct 2018 Score: 25

***