Mount Athos Incense Frankincense

 

Mount Athos is a Greek peninsular-island named after the mountain at its far end. It is a religious area with 20 monasteries, and, like the Vatican, it has  autonomy to run things its own way, which means only men over the age of 18 are allowed to visit. Incense made in the area is popular among Catholics.  

Frankincense is tree resin from the Boswellia family. It grows in parts of Africa and India. Its qualities as an incense have been known for over 6,000 years, and it gained its Western name of Frankincense from the French for "quality incense". There are many grades of resin, and some specialist sellers, such as House of Frankincense, will spend a lot of time in grading the resins they receive, and putting a premium price on the higher grades. 

The Boswellia tree doesn't grow in the Mount Athos region, but the monks there have developed their own recipes for grading and blending the resins they buy in. I'm not sure what grade this Frankincense is - the colour is a dirty yellow with some tending toward orange, many with dark flecks, and some very dark, almost red. I couldn't get it to burn attractively - perhaps burned it too hot. The resin before burning has a gentle lemon aroma, slightly soapy, slightly powdery, with vague flowery elements - white blossoms, perhaps gardenia, and a hint of musk. It's mild and pleasant. When burning, however, it tends to scorch and get smoky and become quite acrid. I put some foil on my burner to slow down the burning and that stopped the scorching, but there was little in the way of aroma, certainly nothing like frankincense. I then got a piece and set fire to it. It burned vigorously and for a brief moment there was mild but pleasant frankincense aroma, then the smoke turned black and there was just a hint of burning petrol and turpentine in the aroma. So if it is burned slowly, normally or fast, this resin does not give out attractive frankincense aromas. It is too mild, and perhaps contains too many impurities. I am disappointed with this. 

The incense was bought from Cenacle, a British based online Catholic book and gift store who sell Christian-associated incense such as Prinknash Abbey resins and  Sacred Heart by Aromatika, plus their own branded range.  

Date: Dec 2020   Score:  12  

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Mount  Athos Incense

Frankincense

Resins