Shanthimalai Nag Champa

 

I do like discovering new incense companies, especially those which have been around a while, and which have a reputation or history. I got this from the excellent ExoticIncense, who do ship internationally. Shanthimalai Nag Champa  is an incense which has been sold in America for some years, and has a positive reputation. It is fondly known as "Red Nag Champa" because it comes in red box, and to differentiate it from Satya's Nag Champa, which comes in a blue box. 

There is information on the back of the box that a proportion of the sales of this incense will be donated to the Shanthimalai Trust; while the Aruna Partnership handles queries in America.*[See below]

Text on the back of the box

I can find little information about who makes the incense, nor who imports it. And I'm reading rumours on the internet that neither the Shanthimalai Trust nor the Aruna Partnership have had anything to do with the incense for some years, so the boxes that are sold now are fakes. I see boxes on sale in India, and in the UK, as well as in America. I have written to the Shanthimalai Trust and the Aruna Partnership to see if they can give me more information. The implication on the box is that the Shanthimalai Trust is the organisation which makes the incense, or at least facilitates the training of women to make the incense. Some sellers, such as the highly regarded Essence Of The Ages, provide the information that it is "handmade by village women at the foot of the sacred mountain Arunachala in Tamil Nadi, India" (presumably Tamil Nadu), that this has been happening since 1985, and that a "beautiful reciprocal working relationship has now been established with 40 villages."

I do like stuff like that. It puts me in mind of Goloka and the Auroville community (who are connected in some way to The Mother's, One Aromatics, Maroma, and The Meadows incenses). While it doesn't make the incense any better, it makes me feel more positive towards it - I tend to feel less positive to incenses sold by folks who conceal whose making the incense. I like openness, honesty, sharing, compassion, etc. I don't mind at all a business being a business - it doesn't have to be a charity, as long as nothing is concealed, so we know that the workers are being treated fairly and with respect. So, I am warm to the whole idea of Shanthimalai - though a little unsettled by the rumours I have been hearing.

This is a decent incense. A masala charcoal paste, still soft, though not moist, has been expertly and tidily hand-rolled around a plain machine-cut bamboo splint and then coated in a woody melnoorva powder to aid drying. The scent on the stick is modest, though quite pleasant. Sweet, creamy, slightly floral, mainly sandalwood, some vanilla, some jasmine, some magnolia, some frangipani, some hints of halmaddi (prickles of warm lambs wool). It's an attractive, slightly sexy scent, quite uplifting and positive. 

The scent on the burn is equally, indeed even more attractive than the scent on the stick - and it's not often I say that about masala incense. It is soft and subtle, and very pleasant. It doesn't lift beyond the pleasant - it remains a pleasing, mostly decent sandalwood, scent with floral and sweet elements. A tad smoky now and again, but nothing inappropriate. It doesn't do a lot, but what it does it does well. A decent everyday masala incense. 

It might be fun to do a Nag Champa scent comparison....

Date: Dec 2022   Score: 35 


*Marian McClelland, President of the Aruna Partnership, has been in touch to let me know that they are not involved with the production of the incense, and never have been. The incense was imported into America by the owner of The Incense Works, who occasionally donated money from sales of the incense to the Shanthimalai Trust because the owner was touched by what they do. The donations stopped some years back. Marian believes the business was sold. Boxes of Shanthimalai Nag Champa should no longer carry information on the back that the Shanthimalai Trust receives money from the sales. Nor should websites selling the incense give the impression that donations go to the Trust.  I have written to The Incense Sampler / The Incense Works / The Incense Sampler Works asking what information they could provide. I've not yet had any response.  

Jan 2023 

Nag Champa