Satya (BNG - Earth) White Sage Dhoop Cones

 

White Sage, or Salvia apiana, is a plant that is burnt by a number of native American tribes as part of purification rites, and is more common as an incense fragrance in America than it is in India or Europe as the plant grows in America and Mexico. It produces an attractive mild sage aroma, quite warming, spicy, gentle, and softly seductive. I've bought some sage smudges, though not used them. But I have burned a few sage incenses, including a Satya White Sage masala stick incense, which I really liked, and, recently, some Aromatika White Sage Incense Cones, which these Satya cones remind me of, though the Satya are better quality with a quiet and consistent musky sage scent.  I'm not knocked out by these, but they are OK - cleansing with a neutral sweet mineral quality.  

I got them from  SacredEssence, which claims to be "Europe's Largest Shaman Alternative Shop", which is an attractive and compelling claim! They are 99p a packet, which appears to be the standard price in the UK for Satya incense, even in corner shops, these days, which is encouraging.  I had a little trouble getting the cones to stay alight. This sometimes happens, but unusually this happened with a significant number of cones, and then happened also with the next Satya cones I burned, the Dragon's Blood.  

The cones are made by Balkrishna Setty, the brother who was in charge of  production, and retained the Bangalore factory when the brothers split up after their father, the founder Shri Satyam Setty, died in 1999. They are in new eco-friendly packaging marked Earth. It is possible that Balkrishna is using an environmentally friendly core burning material, such as coconut fibre, and is not yet used to it - that may be the reason the cones are not burning efficiently. 

Date: April 2021    Score: 30

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Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)