Gokula Everest

Awesome!


Date: May 2018    Score: 43 

  

I'm doing a  mammoth Gokula binge - reviewing all the Gokula samples I have in one session. Gulp! I've come back to this one as my original review isn't exactly very detailed!  Everest is part of Gokula's Classic range, which are in red packs. It is available at £2.95 for 20gms. The Classic range are sold at a lower price than the Connoisseur range, so presumably are cheaper to source, and likely cheaper to manufacture (or are more popular, and so economies of scale allow them to be sold at a lower price). I don't know where Mark of Gokula sources his incense; however, it is likely that they are sold elsewhere in India, and may be distributed by others in the UK and USA - though I doubt if anyone is selling these incenses at the low, "Earthly", prices that Mark does.  If you haven't already, I urge you to visit the Gokula website and to try out a few packs.  

The stick is quite dark and messy looking. The fragrant ingredients appear to be embedded in the makko (or jiggit) and charcoal paste, with only a fine covering of powder, which some sources call melnoorva. Apparently this fine powder is to help dry the incense and stop it from sticking to other sticks. I always thought that the powder was just fragrance! The scent on the stick is complex - quite moody, intense, and intriguing. Agarwood and horse stables: straw, wood, oats, and urine. The scent during the burn is solid, though I'm not experiencing the "Awesome" of my reaction over three years ago, which I can only assume is due to the age of the incense, and that much of the finer fragrances have evaporated. This centres mainly on the deeper aromas - it is musky, woody, dark, sombre, with some less attractive sense of burning or singing. 

I don't think this review is actually going to add much to my earlier one, other than the information that fresh stocks are most certainly to be preferred over older ones.  If scoring now, I would put this somewhere in Everyday incense, but I will keep the original score, and seek out a fresh pack when I have finally caught up with my backlog! 

Date: Nov 2021   Score: 25 (not applied) 

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