Dense oily perfume on the stick - quite damp and weighty, fairly floral. Not really a sandalwood aroma, though some comes through deep inside - as with the Satya Mumbai Sandalwood, there is some cedar wood quality to the wood scent. There is a lot of fragrant dust on the stick - rather more than on the Mumbai - and a fair amount of this drifts off on handling. The scent is a little soapy, and a little herbal, some fruit, some floral, not a lot of wood, let alone sandalwood. There is an odd touch of stale washed clothing - that scent when clothing has been washed, but not aired properly. It sounds bad, but it's not. It's curious. The scent is on the whole sort of interesting or intriguing rather than pleasant or unpleasant.
Comparing Satya (Mumbai) Sandalwood with this sandalwood it's difficult to compare like for like as neither of them seem to have tackled the sandalwood straight on. This "natural" version is certainly more interesting, while the Sandalwood is more conventional and pleasant, but somewhat modest and inconsistent. Neither of them are good examples of sandalwood. Indeed, neither of them are good examples of incense, but are kind of acceptable everyday incenses in their own right. You can burn them in your house as a standard daytime room freshener, they are not unpleasant, but don't expect more than that from them.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 25
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| Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya) |
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| Sandalwood |
Hi Steve, I have recently bought two large boxes of various Satya incense (both factories) and my opinion is that both Satyas (Mumbai and BNG) have gone down in quality significantly over the years and as such have been dethroned. It's not the same Satya anymore. Goloka is new Masala King. Could you review OM Incense please (made by Fair Trade Incense Works, they also produce Niraj) and Radha Madhav please. Thanks. Best, Eugene
ReplyDeleteI did, out of curiosity, get some Om incense. And as soon as I started burning it I recognised that I had tried some previously. I will review shortly. Meanwhile here's the Fair Trade I've already reviewed: AFair Trade Incense Works
DeleteHi Eugene. Sorry, I missed your comment when you made it. Satya are still a decent incense maker, and - for me - when I burn the new incense beside the older incense I still have, I'm not noticing significant differences at the moment. Certainly there was a big drop in quality when Nagarj Setty initially set out on his own, and was not following the Setty family traditions. But he has moved production back to Bangalore where the original incense factory is based, and quality has returned. It's important to note the logos on your packet to see where and when the incense was made. Any Satya incense made in Mumbai tends to be poor quality, and there may still be old stocks around. What I have noticed is that when people first come to Satya, they generally come to Satya Nag Champa as that is very popular and is sold everywhere. And they generally come to it as their first masala incense. Satya Nag Champa is frequently sold alongside perfume-dipped incense. For years I had bought cheap perfume-dipped incense, and I bought Satya Nag Champa only because my usual perfume-dipped incense was not available, and the shop keeper recommended it. Of course it stood out in comparison with what we had been burning. We had simply been buying the cheapest. We knew nothing about incense. The blue Nag Champa changed my life! After many years of burning high quality masala incense, pure resins, Persian incense, craft made granular incense, etc, when I return to Satya Nag Champa it doesn't impress as much. But, really, has the incense changed or have I?
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Goloka make fine incense. They are possibly my favourite maker for all sorts of reasons. However, the similarly named Gokula are also responsible for some heavenly incense. Among the best I have ever experienced. Well worth exploring if you haven't done so already.
I will look into OM and Radha Madhav (which I note is sold by Gokula in the UK), though to be honest I have a back log that it will take me many months to get through. I am starting to tackle it now, and when I get up to date, I will start accepting and ordering new incense.
The KO Shop acquired exclusive import & distribution rights for Zed Black Incenses (MDPH*), Kangana Henna (MDPH*),Ayurvedic Kayakalp Soaps (Nagajothi Group), Nitiraj and associated brands of Natural incenses (The Bombay Incense company) among others. The KO Shop Import & distributes various products of Satya Incenses (Srinivasa Sughandhalaya B'lore), Parimal Incense, Prabhiji's Gifts (USA), various new age/incense accessories from India. The KO Shop has their own range of White Sage smudge (from USA), Palo Santo wood smudge & essential oil (from Peru).
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