Incense in The Wind: Padmini Perfumed Dhoop Sticks

This is Padmini's most popular product - small dhoop sticks which can be burned using a small metal holder in the box. Dhoop, as far as I'm aware from my researches, is the older form of incense making which later spread to other Asian countries 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. 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.

Anyway, while I'm not so keen on wet dhoops, which tend to be too smoky for me, I do like dry dhoops. This is very similar to the BIC Panchavati Dhoop Sticks which have been one of my top favourite incenses for some years now. I always have a stock of Panchavati as they are so delicious. The scent and the packaging are very similar, so either the Panchavati is a copy of the Padmini, or vice versa. Both companies have been around since the Sixties, but I couldn't find any definitive date for which one started production on little dhoops first.

There are others who make small dhoops in a packet with metal holder, including Gomaathaa by Yadalam who make the Vasstu range of dhoops.

These Padmini are like Panchavati in that they have a pleasant creamy base of sandalwood, topped by light, floral, jasmine notes. I really like them. Burning them side by side with Panchavati indicates some differences, but nothing hugely significant - if you like the one, you'll like the other. I incline more to the Panchavati as they seem more balanced, more natural, and the scents intertwine more successfully. But that could be a personal bias as I've been burning Panchavati for years, and so have a positive familiarity with it. The Padmini, for me, has some meaty notes, like pork sausage; it is rougher, dirtier, perhaps sexier in a crude way. More woody, stronger, and less exotic than the Panchavati. There are burning notes, and deeper layers of oily musk. They are interesting, and I am certainly drawn to them. The floral notes are quite sweet, though incline more toward rose than jasmine. For me, the woody, musky notes don't blend as well with the floral notes as the Panchavati, so those extremes are taken by the nose separately, unlike with the Panchavati where they mingle delightfully.

This is an incense I like, and will happily burn again, though at the moment I'm not quite seeing it as heavenly, and so will be placing it at the top of my Decent Everyday box, but just outside the Heavenly Collection

Date: Oct 2018 Score: 39