The scent comes from a liquid inside the seed pods of vanilla orchids, the main one being vanilla planifolia, and the main producers of vanilla being Indonesia and Madagascar. There are several hundred flavour compounds in vanilla, though the main one is vanillin, which is successfully synthesised; and it is synthetic vanillin that is mainly used in perfumes and incense because true vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world due to rarity of the vanilla orchid, which has to be pollinated by hand. In 2001, the global sales of vanillin was 12,000 tons, but only 1,800 tons of that came from natural vanillin.
The scent of vanilla is distinctive - it is smooth, sweet, rich, creamy, subtle and delicate yet intense and lingering.
Reviews
* = Review is over 5 years ago and may not be reliable
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| One Aromatics Vanilla May 2018* - Score: 35↑ |
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| Bhagwan Incense Vanilla Joy (PM) May 2024 - Score: 33 |
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| Sifcon Vanilla Frost Nov 2023 - Score: 32↓ |
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| Darshan Kanishka May 2015* - Score 31↑ |
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| Emporium Impressions Premiere Vanilla May 2015* - Score: 29 |
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| Hari Darshan Vanilla Incense Cones (P) Sept 2023 - Score: 29 |
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| Sifcon Buddha Incense Vanilla June 2017* - Score: 29 |
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| HEM Vanilla Incense Cones January 2019* - Score: 28 |
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| Aargee Stamford Moods Vanilla June 2015* - Score: 28 |
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| Aasha Aromatics Vanilla Orange Oct 2018* - Score 27 |
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| Poundland Coley & Gill French Vanilla April 2017* - Score: 27 |
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| Match Incense Vanilla cones Feb 2020 - Score: 23 |
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| Padmini Vanilla Incense Sticks Aug 2023 - Score 22 |
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| Divine Spirit Vanilla May 2013* - Score 18 |
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| Tulasi Meditation June 2018* - Score: 18= |
Scents: 10
Top score: 36
Bottom score: 18
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteCool!
DeleteI need to put in some details about vanilla. And I'll need to have a hunt to see if I have any more vanilla in my drawers and boxes. It seems a shame that most vanilla incense is low quality everyday stuff rather than anything more significant.
Oh look, Smelly Blog has recently done a post on vanilla
ReplyDeleteVanilla is the new silver
Cool! I'm gonna check it out if you know if any other incense or bakhoor reviewers/ bloggers please do let me know.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm aware I'm the only incense blogger remaining. There are a couple of OK Facebook groups - one which focuses on a particularly expensive Japanese incense, and another which is mainly about trading incense and has rules about what day you can post what, but is friendly and can be informative. My own Facebook page gives links to those - somewhere, it's been a while since I've been there.
Delete