A proper job masala incense made by A. S. Agarbathi Works of Bangalore, who were founded in 1978. This came from Sacred Essence, who wrap everything in attractive orange tissue paper, and is excellent value at £1.30 for 15 quality, long burning and beautiful sticks. Other places, such as Powells, and JustAromatherapy, have it for slightly less.
The aroma is proper old fashioned masala with an attractive aromatic blend of sweet sandalwood, musk, and patchouli. The scent when burning is gentle, and so doesn't have a great impact, but will sweetly inform the room and leave a pleasant lingering sweet warmth for at least 24 hours. That is one of the real strengths of masala incense, that it leaves the home smelling delicious for several days afterwards. If we've been away for a week, when we return we can still appreciate the lingering quality of proper masala incense. That never happens with perfumed incense, which disappears fairly quickly, and can sometimes leave an unpleasant tarry or smoky note.
Date: April 2021 Score: 38
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Thanks for sharing informative post.
ReplyDeleteAll of Master of Incense sticks are charcoal with dipped oils. These are not masalas. I've never tried their products and I'm not saying they can't be good but they are not traditionally made and are usually not considered top end stuff.
ReplyDeleteMasala incense can also be made with charcoal and essential oils. Masala sticks are relatively modern in the world of incense, so are not quite as traditional as some people think. Resins and woods are the oldest and most traditional forms - going back thousands of years, and this company sell resins and woods. After that come dhoops, which is the form the Japanese copied. Masala and perfumed sticks are around 125 years old - they developed roughly at the same time so share the same "tradition". What some people regard as inferior is not sticks which use essential oils, which is what this company do, but companies, like HEM, which use synthesised scents developed in a laboratory.
DeleteLike you, Ho Go, I don't think I have tried Master of Incense products, but I'm willing to keep an open mind. From the description on their website, they seem OK.
I'm certainly going to try and keep an open mind.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask where you get your history of how incense developed? I find it difficult to believe that masala and perfumed sticks evolved at the same time. No doubt that the quality of an oil makes a huge difference and the skill of the artisan in developing either the masala or perfumed stick. A proper masala should have a complexity due to the nature of the ground up ingredients and their release when lit. They cannot be the same as a dipped stick.
In Japan, traditional is associated with the scent. Woods and herbs/spices which were used for rituals. India probably has a similar tradition but things get lost along the way. Some scents were reserved for temples and times of worship. It's all interesting but I'm very curious whether there are any historical records either in India or Japan, as to how and what they used to make incense from hundreds of years ago. I think Baiedo in Japan is the oldest known company making incense for over 300 years. Logically, dhoop style would be the older form of sticks with the bamboo evolving over time as it would be more work to do it that way and I'm sure a whole a sub-industry of bamboo grew up around this.
Also, do you know what the difference is between an agarbathi and a florabathi?
I have casually researched over the years. One day I might compile my notes into something meaningful. Occasionally I add bits of info to Wikipedia.
DeletePaste rolled onto bamboo sticks was invented in 1895 by T.L. Upadyaya and Attar Khasim Saheb of Mysore as an easy way of making incense. The paste at this time was rather basic and did not involve the separate rolling in masala. The sticks at this time were known as oodabathi (I don't know, but I assume "ooda" is related to oudh). By the 1920s perfumes were being used, and the name agarbathi was used - "agar" is aroma linked to scent or perfume. Indians tend to call "perfume-dipped" incense simply "perfumed", and masala incense is called "natural".
I don't actually know (yet) when the masala technique was introduced. I assume it was all around the same time as the bamboo stick was developed, even though the first sticks were known to just be fragrant paste sticks, I should imagine that adding more fragrances as a dried coating was a natural consequence. Essentially, in a short period at the start of the 20th century, paste, masala and perfumed sticks were developed. They are the modern versions of incense. Resins and dhoops are the really ancient/traditional methods.
It is known that the Indian dhoop method of incense making spread to China then Japan. A slightly older form is bakhoor - the Middle Eastern method of incense making, which is to soak bits of agarwood in fragrant oil. If you haven't tried bakhoor yet, I strongly urge you to do so. It's wonderful. It's a form of incense that has been made the same way for over 6,000 years.
Flora or Fluxo sticks are fat sticks, laden with masala and then dipped in essential oils. As far as I'm aware, Sri Sai Flora was the first around 50 years ago, and was popular so others have copied. They tend to be very fragrant - little in the way of subtlety - and can be quite overwhelming. The sort of incense you light, then leave the house, and appreciate the aroma when you return!
Here in Bangkok, we have an Arab Quarter where oudh is sold both in oil and wood chips. Mostly Indian and some from Myanmar, Cambodia, and, Thailand. There are also sellers that have Bakhoor, wood chips soaked in various perfumes. You can sample and choose the scents you want and buy it by weight. There are some very exotic scents to choose from. Fun stuff.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Floras, what you describe has not been my experience. I have several different floras on my shelf and rarely have I encountered a fat stick (fluxos) or a stick with a very bomb-like aroma in the floras. Most are a very soft scented floral types that waft gently in the air. The sandal floras have a soft, pronounced sandal aroma that is very gentle and mingles quite nicely with the masala. None are overwhelming or aggressive but gently present. I particularly like Rathnams Flora Bathi, Gold, Red, Silver, and Sandal. They are nothing like Sri Sai Flora nor are the other brands of Flora Bathi that I have. I wonder why that is.
That's interesting. I had simply looked through my reviews and noted that flora and fluxo seemed interchangeable, and that my own experiences of them were similar. But you have had different experiences. Intrigued by this I have just ordered a variety of flora bathis to explore further. I couldn't find any Rathnams Flora Bathi, but I did find a Rathnams Tanjore, which I have ordered.
DeleteAre you able to access Lazada.com from the UK? If so, you can find Rathnams flora bathi if you do a search for incense. The seller's name is Scents & Stories, a local Thai distributor. Very inexpensive but I'm not sure they ship internationally. Lazada is like Amazon here. I never heard of Rathnams Tanjore incense. The great temple of Tanjore is a great place to visit in South India. One thing I failed to mention is that the Floras seem smokier, but not profusely like the Fluxos.
ReplyDelete