Incense in The Wind: Vinasons Kesar Gulab

Sample from Padmastore, who sell a 20g pack for €6.45 (£5.53). Sold in India by Vinasons for $1.24 (£1.07). Unfortunately, Vinasons don't post to the UK or US. This is my first experience of Vinasons, and I like this Kesar Gulab (Saffron Rose). The company is based in a shop in Pune with a good location on Bagade Road. Their products are available in a variety of outlets in US, and via Padma Store in Europe, though not in the UK itself.

Inside Vinasons shop

The Vinasons shop was founded in 1883 by Manmohandas Sugandhi, selling spices and essential oil (attar) - it later included incense sticks among its products, including at some point their own sticks, perfumed with their own attar (essential oil). The business name is based on Vithaldas Narayandas and his sons (V N and Sons - Vi Na Sons). The area of Pune where the shop is based is Budhwar Peth, which by day is a popular retail area, especially for electrical goods, and by night is even more popular for its girls. There are various articles and videos about the area's colourful nightlife, somewhat overshadowing its more sober daytime businesses.

Attractive girls in Budhwar Peth

Vinasons shop in Budhwar Peth

The Kesar Gulab incense stick is a proper job masala. It is a charcoal-based fragrant-paste hand-rolled onto a pink-dyed machine-cut bamboo splint, and then covered in a woody melnoorva to prevent the moist sticks from binding together. The charcoal paste is very dry. There is a beautiful scent on the stick - quite sweet, flowery, edible; a blend of toffee and Turkish delight and Parma Violets. There's an underlying hint of fresh leather (which is possibly the saffron). It's bloody gorgeous.

The scent on the burn is a little limp and, to be honest, disappointing. The stick promises much, but the bulk of that promise is not based on traditional solid masala ingredients such as resin, tree bark, petals, etc; like perfumed-charcoal incense, the promise of the perfume on the stick is not delivered in the burn because perfume/essential oil evaporates too quickly. After burning for 30 minutes there is a pleasant aroma in the room - gently floral, sweet, kind, like a young woman on summer's day in a summer dress walking in the sunshine in a field of flowers. It's a nice scent. It burns for around 45 to 50 minutes and gently informs the room in a pleasant, soft, flowery manner. Despite the languid manner of the burn, I like this, and am keen to explore more of Vinasons products.

Date: Nov 2022 Score: 31

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