Ranga Rao Cycle Brand Parampara Pure Masala Bathi

Rango Rao are one of India's most successful and revered incense companies, though are not as well known in the West, particularly the UK, as Satya or HEM or Goloka. The history and legacy of the company is detailed on their website: nrrs.com/legacy. The Cycle Brand is Ranga Rao's best known and most successful brand. 
 

Founder N. Ranga Rao with his first van

Supplies of Ranga Rao incense are random and inconsistent in the UK. This incense was recommended to me by reader Vid, who also pointed me to where it could be sourced: qualityfoodsonline. At £1.39 for 50g, this is a good value incense. It's a proper job masala with an intense fragrance hit! Parampara means tradition, and this Parampara is certainly in the tradition of good value masala. 

The bamboo sticks are fairly chunky, though the incense fragrance is strong and solid enough so that there is no awareness of  the core material - what you get is clearly what is intended you should smell. A fragrant paste is hand rolled around the bamboo, and then rolled in a finishing fragrant dust. The scent on the stick is quite floral and "scented" - there are suggestions of baby powder or talcum powder - a clean, engaging and attractive scent hovering around jasmine, vanilla, fresh clay, and sweet biscuits. Lovely. 

On burning the scent is strong enough for one stick to engage with the whole house, yet it doesn't overpower me when sitting close to it. There is halmaddi in the mix, enough to depart from sweet floral or frangipani notes and to become like warm wool, with some of the sharp pricks that tend to irritate my eyes and throat, though not so much as to annoy me. I can handle this, though my personal preference would be for a tad less halmaddi.

Parampara is a pleasing and familiar/reassuring/comforting everyday incense at an excellent value for money price. A decent, proper job, everyday, good value masala - the sort of incense that is the backbone of traditional Indian masala incense. It is not an incense that is going to excite or intoxicate - and I suspect that is not the intention. This is an incense that is likely intended to be simple and everyday - something to light to cleanse and purify and perfume the house.  And the more one comes to terms with that, the more welcoming and comforting it becomes. I suspect that this will become an integral part of my basic stock, and will be the everyday incense I reach for most often. Nice one. 

Date: Jan 2022   Score: 38 

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Ranga Rao