Incense In The Wind

Radiating Incense In The Wind - a painting by Hai Linh Le

Thursday 26 May 2022

Sarathi (Tulasi) Sri Govinda Madhava Violet & Amber Masala Incense

 


A masala incense by Sarathi Perfumery Works using their Sri Govinda Series brand. Sarathi are better known for their highly successful Tulasi brand, which is one of the leading perfumed incense brands in the world. 

The sticks are fragrant masala charcoal paste hand rolled onto pink bamboo splints, and then covered in a fragrant melnoorva powder the main purpose of which is to stop the sticks from gluing together when drying. The charcoal paste is dry and crumbly, possibly indicating low levels of fragrant or essential oils. There is a mighty fragrance on the stick, quite spicy and woody, moderately volatile, and very likeable. 

Its not so attractive on the burn. Indeed, it's not attractive at all. Quite smoky and prickly and fairly plain - just like burning a piece of wood. I quite like woody, but this is dry and dull, and doesn't develop or do much. Burn a bit of rolled up newspaper and you'd get a similar sort of one dimensional scent. One aspect I do like is that it doesn't leave much ash.  

For me this is low end masala. I got this from my local hippy shop in Southampton. It's possible it is old stock of perfumed masala, and the fragrance has evaporated as it does with other perfumed incense over time, so leaving just the dried masala ingredients, so what we've got left is a bit of halmaddi, and some dried plants. Whatever, not impressed. They are available online in Europe (15 sticks for just under 2 Euros) and USA (8gm for £1).  If you like basic Tibetan dried plant-life incense, then you might like this. Otherwise, likely not - unless you find a fresh one with the perfume still active. 
 

Date: May 2022   Score: 18 

***

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