Sagun Shiv Flora Bathi

 

A new incense company for me. Sagun Incense are based in Bangalore, and assert they are "the Leading Manufacturer of Incense Sticks .... around the world". They were founded in 2014 and make both masala and perfumed sticks. 

This is a machine extruded charcoal stick with a thin layer of finishing powder or melnoorva coating the stick. The stick burns evenly with moderate smoke, but the fragrance is thin, dry and sombre. There is an awareness of halmaddi in it, but little joy. It's a mix of woody and floral scents, but it's not speaking to me. I think if I work at it I can get a sense of a woodland, and the close furry warmth of an animal. But, on the whole I'm not impressed; and this doesn't get me closer to understanding what a "flora" incense is, other than a term that some incense companies use, such as "premium", which may mean little. Umraz Ahmed of ELIF has been describing to me how they feel that many incense companies do not make proper "flora" incense these days, and that ELIF are attempting to recreate the sorts of "flora" incense that the founder of ILIF, their father who died recently, used to make. When I encounter a "flora" like this, I do wish ELIF great success in bringing better quality incense to the market.

Date: Oct 2021   Score: 21 

 

Revisiting. I'm not sure I'm that much closer to liking this one than I was a few months a go. I'm not one for the dry, herbal incense, such as they make in Tibet and Nepal; however, this is starting to win me round. I don't think these dry mainly plant based masalas are ever really going to be my favourite sort of incense, but this does have a mildly beguiling blend of pepper and floral, with underlying aromas of interest (rose, jasmine, dried cow dung,  straw, cannabis smoke, wood fire, fried chicken), such that it's not turning me away. I think now that I am aware that the term "flora" does not signify a particular incense so much as being another term such as "natural" or "masala" to indicate that the incense was made from plants, I can approach these floras with a more neutral and open mind, instead of with a certain expectation. Maybe if I return again three months I might like it a little more....

Date: Jan 2022    Score: 27 

 

I'm back again. No closer to appreciating this. It's too sombre, too prickly, too boring for me. There's no joy here. It's a dry, crumbly charcoal-paste, machine-extruded onto a machine-rounded bamboo splint dyed pink. It's been coated in a finishing powder or melnoorva. The scent on the stick is gentle, floral, a little bit sweet, and quite pleasant. It's not a strong aroma, and there's not a lot going on, but it is pleasant enough. The scent on the burn is fairly assertive without being overpowering. The visible smoke is modest, though the room feels kinda smoky - there's the smell of burned coal, and the sense of smoke in the nostrils and in the eyes. The scent is prickly, sombre, monodimensional, dull, with notes of wood, garden waste, warmth, pepper, spice, with softer notes of honey, and perhaps a hint of flower petals. It's not engaging or enthralling. It certainly feels organic, but when faced with burning something as dull, ugly, and irritating as this, or burning a bright and cheerful perfumed incense, albeit with petrol tones, and the sense of it being artificial like a fabric conditioner, then I'm going to choose the bright and cheerful. 

Score moved back down.

Date: March 2022   Score: 22 

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Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme