One of the bunch of samples sent by Koya's Incense. I like this, not as much as the others in the range - the Nirvana and the Heavenswood, but it's still a decent incense. A reader who owns an incense shop in America wrote in to complain that it doesn't smell much of Vietnamese agarwood. No, I wouldn't think so at the price - but just in case anyone else runs away with the idea that a packet of incense costing £1.50 ($2) is going to remind them of Vietnamese agarwood, it's worth bearing in mind that incense containing old agarwood is very expensive as there are fewer and fewer old Aquilaria crassna trees that can be harvested for agarwood. Some Japanese incenses which contain old agarwood cost £100 ($135) for a packet. Most agarwood these days comes from younger trees grown on plantations.
The scent on the stick is a little woody: sandalwood, some cedar, some spice, some tobacco; quite sombre but decent enough. The burn takes a little while to settle down and is initially quite light and flowery, but than agarwood/bukhoor notes start to emerge - not in any profound manner, but quite acceptable. The woody notes and floral notes hover around for a while in a curious dance, though - for me - the floral notes tend to dominate, with a sort of sherbet rose being the most prominent. The burn is sweeter, lighter, more colourful and charming than the stick. The balance between the light, perfumed floral notes, and the more sombre woody notes is uncertain - varying, sometimes erratically, suggestive of inconsistency in the mix. But the whole experience is pleasant enough.
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