Incense in The Wind: Tree of Life (out of business)

Thursday, 10 January 2019

Tree of Life (out of business)

Tree of Life is a brand of hand made bamboo stick incense created in the UK in 1992 by Geoffrey Davies. They used to be available direct from Tree of Life for 99p a packet, plus postage, as well as being distributed by Cha Cha Dum Dum, an ethnic gifts company founded in Kensington in 1968. Eventually Cha Cha Dum Dum took over the brand themselves, closing down the Tree of Life website, but Cha Cha possibly ceased trading in 2018, though as of Jan 2019, the Tree of Life brand was still in negotiation, and Cha Cha posted new shop hours on their Facebook page. By 2020 the company had ceased trading.

Tree of Life are generally available at a low price from a few internet and high street incense shops. The design of the packets reminds me of Spiritual Sky incense from the Seventies, and I don't think that's a coincidence. The packs have always said "Made in UK", but I'm dubious about that claim. Cost of production is so cheap in Asia - it's transport that costs, so it wouldn't make sense to import the raw material (such as the bamboo sticks) which would cost pretty much the same as the price of importing the finished product, and then pay someone UK labour charges to make them here. My feeling is that due to the low quality and style of the sticks, that they are made in Vietnam or Thailand.