Sree Vani Sri Akhand Jaap Flexo Bathi

I'm exploring incense termed "flora" and "fluxo", so I am revisiting this "flexo" incense that I reviewed a couple of years ago and dismissed it quite harshly. I have a tendency to not be generous toward dry incenses. This is quite a sombre, woody incense, which smells sweeter and more promising on the stick. It's a simple charcoal base rolled in a masala of fragrant ingredients which lean a lot toward cedarwood. I have noticed that spellings, especially of vowels, can vary in descriptions on Indian incense packs. My assumption is that "flexo" is a variant spelling of "fluxo" - indeed, I have found that I sometimes write "flexo" when I mean "fluxo". "Fluxo" is the term that was used on Sri Sai Flora, but nobody is entirely sure what it means, though a couple of Indian incense makers have said to me that they associate it with a natural energy flow from the Earth, through plants, through the burning of incense, and so into the heavens as an offering to the gods. I like that. 

Even though I feel I was harsh on this incense when I first reviewed it, I'm not getting much from it on this revisit. For sure this experience is not as crude as the first one, so I shall; mark up my score, but it's not an overlooked gem. Just a lower end everyday incense. That it is a masala doesn't by default make it a quality incense, but it certainly makes it somewhat more acceptable than a poor quality perfumed incense.  

Date: Oct 2021  Score: 20 

Bought from Pilgrims Fair Trade for £1.50. This is the first incense I have tried from Sree Vani of Bengaluru (Bangalore), who were formed in 1983.

It's a dry, serious incense, with little sweetness. It's quite woody, but not a fragrant woody, rather a woody woody, a bit like cedar, but without the sweetness. It feels sort of crude and cheap, and smells more of burning wood than of incense.

This is more of a functional incense than an aesthetic one. Unless you are inclined to like the smell of dry, base wood burning. Best used to keep flies away when heating outdoors.


Date: Dec 2018  Score: 15

***

Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme

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