Ranga Rao Cycle Brand Vasu Kewda incense Sticks

 

Kewda or kewra or ketaki is the distilled essence of the screw pine or pandanus plant, which is used as a flavouring in Asian and Indian cooking, particularly biryani. It is sometimes used as a fragrance in Indian incense. I love the packaging on this - it's real old school, and reminds me of my young hippy days, when much incense was sold in round tubes sealed with metal caps at the end. I think Spiritual Sky was the first incense I remember being sold in modern flat packs. 

Anyway. Again old school, this is a perfume dipped incense. I'm OK with perfume dipped incense. It works well as an everyday incense, used just to freshen a room, to hide a bad smell, or keep flies away. And it's great when the perfume is also pleasant, as it is here. This is not an incense to use for meditation, aromatherapy, magic spells, to impress guests, to seduce someone you fancy, or to ponder and think about. Like a pint of lager or fish and chips on the beach it serves a simple purpose, and is not to be examined too closely.  

This pack was 99p from QualityFoodsOnline.  They sell a small quantity of incense, notably including Cycle Brand, are well meaning people, but I had a bad time with them as they messed up my order. They did try to sort it out, but we ended up agreeing to let things rest as they were because it starting getting too complicated....

Anyway. The incense. Well, it's OK. The scent on the stick is interesting - a bit of solvent and polish, but also something like sticky rice, sweet corn, and wood shavings. Yeah, OK. It burns well, with little off scents. It's a machine made stick. Well made with decent quality bamboo and charcoal. The scent is modest, faintly floral, some leather, and echoes of the scents picked up on the stick. Yeah, I like it. It's not hugely impressive, but at 99p for 50gm, it's not bad at all. It's carbon neutral, so I assume the charcoal is coconut rather than wood. And it's made by Ranga Rao, one of India's biggest and most experienced incense manufacturers. Yeah. I like it. 


Date: Jan 2022   Score: 35 

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Ranga Rao