Gokula Connoisseur Chocolate & Vanilla / Gaura Chocolate Supreme

  

Day 2 of the mammoth Gokula binge - reviewing all the old Gokula samples I have in one session. The samples (mostly) date from May 2013 so are not indicative of what a fresh pack would be like. Masala incense does last a while, certainly longer than perfumed incense, especially when kept in a cool, dark, airtight space, but some of the higher notes will evaporate over a period of eight years - I am allowing  that up to 15 points could be lost per incense. Some of the higher scoring Gokulas I will buy new once I clear my backlog, and see how they behave when fresh. Meanwhile....

I have two samples here - one from the 2013 batch, and one that I was sent in Dec 2019, so is only around two years old. Be interesting to see the difference. The Gaura brand name has been absorbed into the Gokula Connoisseur brand, and the name changed from Chocolate Supreme to Chocolate & Vanilla. It is available at £3.95 for 20gm. I notice that there is a sign on the website saying that the shop is closed for maintenance, and they will reopen on 22/11/21. I hope they don't change the website and break my links! 

The scent on the 2013 stick is sonorous, dark, spirited with sharp peaks, has tobacco, petrol, faint dark bitter orange, leather. Little sweetness or richness, and no chocolate notes that I can pick up. Quite a dense scent, and fairly active. Likeable, but in a modest way. I enjoy more sweetness or wood in my incense. The 2019 sample looks so similar - it could have been rolled by the same person. It smells very similar, though is slightly less sombre, and there are fresher fruit tones, hints of raspberry, and less tobacco. Though it is equally spirited with sharp peaks and hints of petrol. Hard to believe from the appearance and the scent on the stick that over six years separate these two. 

They both have a similar burn appearance - an even controlled burn, releasing an appropriate amount of smoke. The aroma from both is sombre, limited, a bit smoky, burning wood, There is more flavour in the 2019 stick, and I am now getting chocolate. The 2013 is lighter, less interesting, and mostly wood burning. This matches my previous experience with older sticks, that the scent on the stick can remain a long time, but on the burn top notes and range is lost, and the experience is mostly of the heavier scents, and there is a tendency for the base material to assert itself. There's a little dark spice - burnt cinnamon - on both sticks. The 2019 is better, but neither are impressing me. This is not my sort of incense. It is too sombre, and there's not enough going on. 

Date: Nov 2021    Score:   24 

***

Gokula-incense