Shroff Agarbathis (sometimes written as Shroff Channabasappa & Sons) is an incense company I have been interested in for a while. Their products are not readily available in the UK, but are available from Padma Store in Germany, and are imported into the US by The Incense Sampler Works and sold via sites such as ExoticIncense for $2 a pack (but only the "dry" masala, which is what I've got, as mine came from Exotic Incense) and IncenseOfTheAges for around $5 or $7 a pack, depending on if you have the "dry" or "wet" masala. There are also package deals of "dry" Shroff from Amazon and WalMart. People who have tried them find them to be variable, and of personal taste, but a number find them to be very likable, with some fans claiming them to be supreme works of art. I know little about the company, and finding information about them is difficult. According to ExoticIncense, the company exhibited at the 1914 Chicago World Fair. This may have happened, but my researches into incense indicate to me that the first appearance of incense at a world exhibition or fair was at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 where incense on a bamboo stick (then called Oodabathi) was displayed and given away as gifts. India at that time was part of the British Empire. Incense was certainly at the 1933 World Fair in Chicago - Lama Incense was exhibited there.
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| Incense at the 1933 Chicago World Fair |
EssenceOfTheAges say that Shroff "participated in an overseas trade fair, in London in 1930" - and this appears to be true. Essence OfTheAges say of Shroff that their "first agarbathi (incense) manufacturing factory opened in 1882". This would be close to twenty years before agarbathis were developed in Mysore according to research done by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. It is difficult to know what the Shroff company were doing in the late 1800s, though I am aware that Haridas Madhavdas Sugandi and Vithaldas Narayandas and Sons, both of Pune, make similar claims, and we know that incense was being made and sold for thousands of years before agarbathis or joss sticks were first developed, so it is possible that all three companies were making and selling some form of incense, though perhaps not incense in the form of sticks and cones as we know today. Anyway, apparently the company's name has recently changed to Channabasappa & Co. Dropping the Shroff part of the name - which is odd, as that is generally how the company are known: Shroff. [Added: I now have some Shroff packed in India, and the label reads: Shroff Agarbathis - Packed by: Channabasappa & Co. That lead me to speculate that Shroff make the incense, while Channabasappa packets and markets it, and I wondered if they were two separate departments of the same company, or two different companies. I wrote to Shroff, and Prathik Shroff responded, saying that: "Channabasappa & Co is our official trade name and Shroff is our family name and we decided to keep that name as we have for the past 100 years or more. "]
Anyway, enough of the incomplete and speculative history. On to the incense itself. Well, the pack, containing approx 20 sticks (25 gm), is wrapped in string in the manner of Tibetan incense, and then wrapped around with a paper label by The Incense Works and sealed in cellophane. I wanted to keep the cellophane wrapped around the sticks as much as possible to preserve their scent, and also keep them, together, but it proved quite difficult to do that and remove an incense stick without damaging it. I managed it, but it kinda left me frustrated at the incompetence of the cheap and crude method of packaging. Whatever. This happens.
The scent on the stick does not indicate amber. It is sandalwood at the base with floral notes edging toward rose on top. It's nice, though fairly ordinary. The quality does not speak of natural incense, the floral scent leans toward perfume rather than natural petals. My impression is more of a perfumed incense than than of a masala. And I'm not getting any sense at all of amber. OK.
The burn, as is often the case, especially with incense that relies on perfume or oil fragrances, or incenses that feature significant top or light notes, is less interesting and pleasant than the scent on the stick. In this case it is fairly dry and smoky. I sometimes encounter poor quality or dull masala incense, but rarely as dry and dull as this. It doesn't look, behave, or smell like a masala at all. This presents to me as an everyday perfumed incense. I have found little here to enjoy at all. However, my girls liked it way more than me - finding it sweet where I found it dry, and finding it refined where I found it crude. Fair enough. Reports indicate that quality and opinions do vary across the range of Shroff. I have ordered a wide selection from Padma Store, including the "wet" masala. And I will return to this on other day. I have burned three of these over the past two days with the same experience, however, opinions can and do change.
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| Shroff Incense |
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| Amber |
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