Sai Handicrafts UK Hand Rolled Pitcholi

 

I like these Sai Handicrafts incenses. Everything I have tried so far, bar one - Masala, has been single scent - sandalwood, agarwood, loban, and now this Pitcholi, which is clearly patchouli, though with an unusual spelling. The scents are pretty much as you'd expect them to be - there's no flourish of individuality, these are simply decently made incenses producing decent scents on target for the named scent. The sticks are hand rolled, and present as masala; that is, they have a reasonable application of black paste, coated with a dusting of wood powder (melnoorva). The sticks are fragranced by oils or perfumes - they have that volatility that liquid scents have. But there is also an awareness of halmaddi, a substance strongly associated with masala, or at least, with quality incenses as it doesn't have much of a scent of its own, but does have the ability to enhance and project the fragrance in the mix.  I have over the years I have been doing this blog pondered the whole nature of "perfumed" (or "perfume-dipped" or "scented") incense v "masala" (or "natural" or "flora") incense. Incense originated as solid particles - woods and resins mostly - which were burned on fires or smouldering charcoals to release their scent, and also the smoke, which feels an essential part of the incense experience. At some point, for ease and convenience, dhoops were developed by priests in which the solid particles were ground down and blended with binders and combustible material (charcoal dust and/or wood dust), and then rolled into thin sausage or stick shapes. The use of a bamboo splint on which to hold the dhoop paste is relatively recent in the history of incense, having been developed around 1900 by two Mysore businessmen in order to simplify and speed up the process of incense making so that incense could be made by women at home on a semi-industrial scale.  At some point oils or attars were included in the making of incense sticks - though I've not yet discovered much secure information on that, though I have learned that around the 1920s and 30s synthetic fragrances such as musk xylol and musk ambrette were being used in the manufacture of incenses in China, Japan, and Mysore. And I suppose it is the introduction of synthetic fragrance into incense making that really marks the divergence into "masala" and "perfume-dipped". Whatever "masala" signified at one point (I assume it originally indicated the blend of ingredients - fragrant and non-fragrant - into the paste that was rolled onto the bamboo splint), at this stage it appears to signify for most people that the incense is intended to be decent quality with an eye on tradition. And for most people the term "perfume-dipped" would suggest a quick, cheap, and crude method of incense making with synthetic liquid fragrances. That much "masala" incense is made these days with synthetic fragrances (due to cost and availability, as well as that today's synthetic fragrances are safer and better quality than that used twenty years ago, let alone a 100 years ago), and that some "perfumed-dipped" incense can be made with high quality oils or perfumes, confuses the issue.  All this waffle is just me saying that these sticks look like masala incense, but present as perfumed incense, and that such categorisation is probably unhelpful. 

The scent on the stick is herbaceous, musky, woody, floral, sweet, sexy, calming, bright, delicious, and harmonious. A beautifully balanced scent. Nips of volatility are not offensive, but do eventually dissuade from prolonged sniffing. The stick is hand rolled and well made. It burns at a steady rate, the fragrance unfolding firmly but gently in the room. It neither overwhelms nor underperforms. The scent on the burn largely echoes that on the stick, though is slightly warmer and deeper with a keener focus on the musk element, and with the sheep wool prickle of halmaddi. It's a great scent, though doesn't seduce me. This is a solid, decent, value for money, quality patchouli incense. They cost £2 for twelve sticks (the weight of the packs are generally between 20 and 25g). That's a very good price for the quality and amount. 

Date: Dec 2023   Score:  41 

***

Patchouli

Sai Handicrafts UK

Sai Handicrafts UK Hand Rolled Loban

 

Back in October 2015 I was in Oxford to take part in the Oxford Half Marathon, and while wandering through the market the day before the race I was attracted to some incense being burned on one of the stalls. It was a Sai Handicrafts Gold Sandal, and I bought it and enjoyed it, then put it away. While doing my Great Sort Out (keep, outhouse, or bin), I came upon the sticks again, and was really blown away by how good they are. So I ordered some more, plus a few others from Sai Handicrafts. This is one of the products I ordered.  I tend to like loban incense, which along with sambrani is commonly regarded as another name for benzoin, though can also be a generic name for any fragrant tree resin such as benzoin or frankincense.  Benzoin (and therefore also loban) is regarded as having a sweet vanilla scent. My personal association with benzoin / loban / sambrani is of a cold, crisp, mineral based scent. And that has been fairly constant. We are individuals, and while we mostly will share reactions and responses - laugh at jokes together, run from danger together, love chocolate together, there are occasions when we are known to divide - such as our reaction to Marmite, and there are occasions when the divide may be a minority or even unique taste or response. I suspect I have a minority response to loban - so where I smell cool mineral, others will be smelling sweet vanilla. Odd, isn't it? 

I love this Hand Rolled Loban. The sticks have a generous amount of very neatly (at first glance they look machine extruded) hand rolled black charcoal paste (now very hard) on pink dyed machine cut bamboo splint. Length is the standard 7 inches of paste on 9 inches of stick. The scent on the stick is cool mineral, sweet, prickly raw sheep's wool (which usually signifies halmaddi to me), faint floral - the subtle, herbaceous green scent of a meadow daisy, and soft spice. I love it. It's clean, light, lively, uplifting, slightly medicinal. 

The burn is slow, steady, just right. It's a long burn - around 70 minutes. And the scent is firm but gentle, and informs the whole house, cleansing it, and bringing in positive vibes. The scent lingers for ages. Impressive, well made stuff. I don't know where Sai Handicraft source this [2024 comment: Pinkesh of Sai Handicrafts tells me they make the incense themselves] , but it's a solid and decent loban incense. It is, to be fair, pretty much on a par with other decent single scent loban/sabrani/benzoin incense. If someone likes loban, they are odds on to like this. If they don't like loban, they are unlikely to enjoy this. 

Date: Dec 2023   Score:  40 

***

Sai Handicrafts UK

Benzoin / Loban / Sambrani

Ancient Wisdom Bulk/Loose Incense (assorted fragrances)

 

Stopping for lunch at the Salt Cellar cafe at the top of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury (famous for the Hovis advert), we popped into a hippy shop, and my daughter and I were taken by a display of loose incense with an offer of 10 sticks for £1.75. We had a few moments of fun picking out the ten sticks we preferred. 

  

The incense is made by an unknown incense house in India, and imported by UK wholesalers Ancient Wisdom who sell the sticks in bulk for a 1p each. I'm just going to burn a little bit of each one, and then hand them back to my daughter.  

Fooling around on Gold Hill

The sticks vary in length from 10 to 10 1/2 inches. The thickness also varies. All appear to be hand rolled. And all are coloured. All have a dry, hard paste with a covering of powder. The scents on the stick are gentle, perfumed, pleasant. Mostly quite minerally and dry. Some soft fruit notes with an edge of sweetness. These would be widely regarded as perfumed dipped.  Leaving them open in the shop makes them vulnerable to evaporation of the scent. I have little expectation that these will be good incenses. 

The sticks

Lemongrass

Scent on the stick is green, herby, soapy, touch of sea salt, faintly, modestly pleasant. The scent on the burn is herbal - quite green, like cannabis. There is some burning sawdust now and again - an indicator that the scent has largely evaporated. Fresh this might be acceptable, but as it is now it has faded a tad too far. 
Score: 18 

Hemp flower

Soapy notes seem to be quite common on these sticks. This has a musky base. Some sweet sandalwood. Herby indications. A little candy sweetness.  Some of that comes through on the burn, but faintly. More clear is the burning of damp sawdust, some dried cow pats, and then a faint low end musky/patchouli scent. This is borderline. 
Score: 20 

Ancient Times 

Soapy, mineral, faintly sweet, floral, bath oils. All these sticks have a generic synthetic perfume fragrance - the sort of thing you'd find on cheap soaps, bath oils, room refreshers, etc. They are very similar, modestly pleasant, and ultimately unsatisfactory.  They are not awful. But they don't impress. This one, being a little fatter than the others, have a good volume of smoke, but the scent is lesser - the aroma on the burn is inclined more toward the sawdust than the perfume. But when the perfume wins out, it's an acceptable blend of florals, musk, and wood which points towards sandalwood. 

Score: 21

Witch Doctor

This is quite warm and sultry. There's coconut, rose tea, musk, warm sand, sex. This one should have been called Sex on The Beach. It has a tropical island feel to it. It's quite a fat one - one of the fattest. lots of smoke on the burn, and goose grease, burning sawdust, along with memories of the scent on the stick - especially the coconut. Yeah, this is promising. I think if this were fresh it would be quite acceptable. 
Score: 23 

Frankincense & Myrrh

A gently sweet, soapy, scent on the stick. A curiously fishy scent initially on the burn which settles into somewhat softly musky, gently sweet, which I could be convinced points in the direction of Frankincense & Myrrh. Hmm. This is actually reasonably pleasant. Low end, but not abysmal.  

Score: 23 
 

Apple & Cinnamon 

There's an apple scent - no awareness of  cinnamon. Some sweetness. Some floral - roses. Another chunky one - the bamboo splint is a square hunk. On the burn there's some sweet sawdust. It's like apple juice soaked wood being burned. Inclines toward sweet. Borderline. 
Score: 20 

Spices

 

Soapy again. Marine. Some fruit. Faint wood. Not much in the way of spices. Of course, it's possible we got some of the sticks mixed up. And it's also possible that the sticks got jumbled in the shop. Who knows. And who really cares? There's not a significant difference between these scents - they all hover around gently pleasant, inoffensive, slightly soapy, everyday synthetic room and product fragrances. Nothing really bold and interesting, such as with Juicy Jay's or Wild Berry,  who have the same marketing approach of putting loose perfumed sticks in jars or holders, but the end result is the same. An invitation on the stick, and a disappointment on the burn. This one ends up a little too sawdusty. 
Score: 18  

Seagrass Ocean

This is the fattest stick of those we chose. It has a mineral and marine scent. It is the most volatile of the sticks - probably the freshest. It is mildly citric with bergamot and lavender. The aroma on the burn is warm, slightly smoky with notes of fresh onion and artificial bacon smoke.  The perfume struggles to remain on top against the intruding smell of  burning sawdust.  The fattest sticks do seem to the ones that have the most difficultly retaining the perfume, which is the opposite of what I thought might be the case. But, I suppose, if they're all dipped in the liquid perfume for the same amount of time, then they'll probably absorb roughly the same amount of perfume, with the perfume not fully penetrating to the centre of the fatter ones. 

Score: 21 

Patchouly

It's kind of sad how all these different scents, albeit they are fairly generic anyway, end up smelling so alike.  I do enjoy patchouli, it's long been my favourite scent, but this bears little resemble to that scent. I wonder if, because of the spelling, it is meant to be a copy of the perfume, Patchouly - which apparently contains more wood and amber than patchouli. This does present as more distinctly wood and amber (with some of the mineral and soap, which seems to be endemic to this range of sticks) than patchouli. 

Score: 20 

Sex On The Beach

Quite a fruity name, and quite a fruity scent. There's peach and cranberry, so it's clear that the scent is intended as a copy of the famous cocktail invented by barman Ted Pizio in the Confetti bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As with the others, the perfume struggles on the burn, and there's a little too much of the smell of sawdust for comfort. Shame, as the fruity aroma is otherwise quite pleasant. 

Score: 22 

Date: Dec 2023  Score: 21

***

Ancient Wisdom

Top Ten Perfume-Dipped
Incense Sticks

Vithaldas Narayandas & Sons - Vinasons

 

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 company is based in a shop in Pune with a good location on Bagade Road.  

Vinasons shop in Budhwar Peth

The area of Pune where the shop is based is Budhwar Peth, which by day is a popular retail area. There are several incense houses,  though it is especially known 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. 

Night-time girls in Budhwar Peth

Vinasons are one of a number of long established incense houses in  Pune, though are perhaps somewhat shadowed in reputation in the West by their neighbours, the Haridas Madhavdas family, who supply a number of private label companies, such as Gokula, Pure, and Primo. However, Vinasons are a good quality incense family; as far as I'm aware, they don't supply private label companies, which is perhaps why they are not as well known in the West. 

Inside Vinasons shop

Their products are available in a variety of outlets in US, and via Padma Store in Europe, though not in the UK itself. 

Reviews

Vinasons VNS Lavender
Sept 2023 Score: 33

Vinasons VNS Musk Oudh
Oct 2023 Score: 32

Vinasons (VNS) Kesar Gulab
Nov 2022 - Score: 31

Vinasons (VNS) Yellow Champa
Aug 2023 Score: 29

  

Vinasons (VNS) Patchouli Neo (PM)
March 2024 - Score: 29 

Scents: 5

Highest score: 33

Lowest score: 29

Average: 31

***

The Best Incense Makers

Parimal Yatra Natural Incense

 

This is a stunningly gorgeous incense. I've been burning the Yatra cones for a while,  and they've been one of my favourites since 2021. Last year I couldn't get hold of the cones, so I bought the sticks. I've gone through a couple of packets without realising that I hadn't reviewed the sticks. Sticks and cones tend to be formulated differently and burn differently, so there can be an aroma difference - or at least an aroma experience difference. Cones tend to release a lot of smoke and aroma in a short compact manner, while sticks tend to be both more consistent and more leisurely. I generally prefer sticks. I like that slow, steady, prolonged and leisurely unfolding of the scent. Cones can be a bit blunt. 

The scent on the stick is awesome. The stick is a standard 8 inches, with 6 inches of black paste, now dry and crumbly, hand-rolled onto a plain bamboo splint, and then thinly covered in wood powder. The scent on the stick is from a liquid fragrance - perfume or oil, supported by fragrances from dried resins and woods.  It's very beautiful. Refined. Very sexy. Musky. Sweet. Woody. Patchouli. I love patchouli, so this falls right into my lap, and I'm seduced. 

The burn picks up on the scent from the stick, though is warmer, more woody, less sweet. Bloody gorgeous. It's a steady, unfolding burn. Nothing too dramatic - this is a burn that should appeal to most people. The fragrance gently envelops the room, making its perfume known and felt in a feminine manner. I love this. There's floral notes here as well, though mostly it's wood and resin and musk and patchouli. 

Yatra is sold in most places, so is easy to get hold of, and is usually sold at a modest price, which means this is attainable for most people, either as a casual, everyday room freshener, or as something a little bit special, such as for a romantic evening for two (or more than two, if that's your bag). 95p for 17g from Popat Stores in the UK; $2 from ExoticIncense in the US; $2.50 from WorldOfIncense in Australia. 

Date: Oct 2021    Score:  47

***

Parimal Mandir

Reviewed on Ratnagandh

Aargee Imperial Maharaja Patchouli Fragrance

 

Yet another vintage Aargee packet turns up in my collection that I haven't reviewed - and boy, it's a beauty! Aargee's Imperial range was proper old school incense, making good use of halmaddi, the tree resin gum that is still used by more traditional incense houses.  I've marked this as a vintage incense as Aargee no longer exist - the company was split into two, with the incense commissioning and distribution being continued by Stamford London; however, some stock can still be found on various sites - such as Ephra-World in Germany.  When those stocks are gone, they are gone. But, one hope is that as Aargee commissioned these sticks from an Indian incense house, that they may be available from that house under a different brand name. If anyone knows who made these sticks....

Sticks are 8 inches with 6 inches of dry crumbly black paste hand rolled onto a pink-dyed hand-cut bamboo splint. The scent on the stick is very creamy and sweet and woody and floral. It's a real old school scent  tingly with halmaddi. Musky and sexy and naughty. There's the smell of marihuana and patchouli and denim and tie-died cotton. Touches of fresh sweat and sexual desire. It creates a picture in my mind this scent - but that is a personal picture created by the memories and associations I derive from the scent. I love it! I could sit and sniff this stick all day long and be happy.  

The burn is steady, uplifting, fulfilling, hugely engaging and pleasant. The scent unfolds around the room and gently but firmly engages and seduces. The fragrance floats around, very present all around, but never rude - a bit naughty and playful perhaps, but never aggressive or unwelcome. Most of the scents on the stick are present in the burn, even though this packet of incense is several years old. Proper job masala incense remains active for longer than perfumed. And it's possible, if it is a genuine masala, not one that predominantly relies on a liquid fragrance, that the fragrance may even develop, change, and improve in the way that some cheeses, wines, and beers will. The burn is slow and steady, lasting around an hour, releasing the fragrance in a controlled manner so all the scents are in harmony, and are presented as they should be. This is a properly made and utterly gorgeous incense. These Imperial range incenses are really top quality, and this patchouli is possibly the best in the range. Fucking awesome! 


Date: Dec 2023    Score: 47

***

Vintage Incense
(Incense no longer available)

Ratings of other incense by Aargee

Halmaddi

Patchouli

Aargee Krishna Leela Agarbathi

Another ancient incense packet in my hoard that I haven't reviewed. They keep cropping up! Aargee was a UK importer of (mostly) Indian goods, and commissioned a number of incenses either under the Aargee or the Stamford brand. The company split up a few years ago, with the general goods division being taken over by Puckator, while the incense division restarted under the name London Stamford. The Aargee branded masala incense was generally very good - much was commissioned from Satya or Goloka, though some, such as the Imperial and the Chakra series, were of a more individual character than either of those. 

This is a fairly standard decent masala. The sticks are 8 inches with 6 inches of hard, crumbly black paste hand rolled onto a plain hand-cut bamboo splint, and then coated in a layer of fine brown powder or melnoorva. There is a crisp masala scent on the stick - a few hints of the fragrance being an oil or perfume, though it mainly feels that the scent comes from odoriferous material such as plants and resins; there's also a prickle of raw lambs wool, which I tend to associate with halmaddi, a gummy tree resin that helps to diffuse and project the fragrant ingredients. The scent on the stick is woody, mineral. spicy, balsamic, engaging. 

The aroma when burning repeats the scent on the stick. This is a secure fragrance - very clean and mineral, very satisfying, solid and dependable, cleansing, cool, pleasant. It's not rough, not exciting, not interesting or dramatic, not sexy or disturbing. It is what it is. Likeable, reassuring, cleansing (have I said cleansing), and for me leaning in the direction of sambrani/loban, but without the sweet, vanilla, musky aspects of benzoin. I like it. I like it a lot. But it doesn't excite me or grab my attention enough to get the high scores.   

Date: Dec 2023   Score: 39 

***

Aargee 

Vintage Incense
(Incense brand
not currently available)

Aargee Joss Styx Chakra Sahasrara Crown

I have found another Aargee incense pack that I never got around to reviewing. This is part of the Chakra range, though, as with the Manipura I reviewed yesterday, also has the branding "Joss Styx" applied at the top of the packet. Oh. I just checked - they all have the "Joss Styx" branding. Silly me. 

I do like this Aargee Chakra range. It works for me. Solid proper job masala with gorgeous scents. The scent on the stick is fresh, lemony, vanilla custard, herby, woody, lavender, sandalwood. Oooh, nice!  The scent on the burn picks up on the aspects found on the stick, though warmer, deeper, and with the added note of a raw wool prickle, which is a personal reaction to the existence of halmaddi, a tree gum added to enhance the fragrances. 

Though I really like this Sahasrara, it doesn't excite me as much as some of the others in the Chakra range. It's less sweet, has less depth and width (or "complexity"  - that sense that there's a number of things happening). But it's still an awesome scent, and like all the others, it fully informs the room in a smooth, gentle manner, and leaves a cleansing, tingling, beautiful aroma for over 24 hours. Top job. 

The blub on the packet says: "This fragrance has been created using a special mix of Lavender and Rosewood."    I get the lavender, though am less clear on the rosewood.  I looked it up - rosewood contains linalool, which has floral and spicy notes, and is found in citrus fruits and lavender, with inflections of cedarwood. So the rosewood would account for the lemony and woody notes. OK. 

Date: Dec 2023   Score: 38

***

Vintage Incense
(Incense brand
not currently available)

Aargee 

(Mahendra) Ancient Wisdom Freedom Serenity

As part of my tidy up I came upon this packet of  Freedom Serenity, which I bought along with a packet of Freedom Nag Champa (and background information on the incense can be found in that review) back in 2018, and started to review, but never completed it.  All I did was post the following image: 

The packets are still sold, and information about the Freedom scheme can be found at www.aw-freedom.com. Essentially, 10p from each sale goes directly to helping poor people in India.  

The incense is commissioned from Mahendra by Ancient Wisdom, and is a basic low cost scented incense. There is standard fake rose scent on the stick which is present in the burn. Indeed, the burn is quite pleasant and acceptable for a perfumed incense which is over five years old. That's not to say it's anything to write home about. It is fairly mild and uninteresting. But at least it's not offensive or over bearing. 

Date: Dec 2023   Score: 24 

***

Mahendra Betco - Best of

Ancient Wisdom

Stamford Joss Styx Chakra Manipura Solar Plexis

 

I've been sorting out my incense collection, and for the past week or so I've been tidying up my Aargee/Stamford incense and updating my Aargee overview post, which has mostly consisted of marking a whole bunch of incenses as discontinued as Aargee has now closed as a business - the general importing side has been bought by Puckator, while the incense commissioning side continues as a new business called StamfordLondon, though trading under the Stamford brand name. Initially I thought StamfordLondon were just selling the old Stamford scented incense; however, I note that Ephra-World, the excellent German online shop, has a large stock of Stamford branded masala incense, including a number of old favourites. These new Stamford masalas appear to be made mostly by Satya and Gokula, which Aargee used to work with very closely. 

Anyway. I found an old packet of Aargee that I had never reviewed. A Manipura Solar Plexis - part of the old Chakra series. I don't know who made the Chakra incenses for Aargee, but they were among the best incenses that Aargee sold. The Chakra line and the Imperial line were genuinely world class incenses. Proper old school masala, and for those who like halmaddi, these Chakra are rich with it - holding and dispersing the masala scents, which can linger in the house for over 24 hours. There's that raw sheep's wool prickle in my nose that I get from halmaddi, but it's acceptable, especially when it helps to deliver such a profound scent as this Manipura. 

As with the other Chakras the sticks are 8 inches long with 6 1/2 inches of hand-rolled black paste coated with a brown woody powder to stop the sticks from gluing together as they dry.  The scent on the stick is woody pine, cedar, Christmas tree, and men's cologne - which seems typical for this Chakra series. There's suggestions of herbs and some lavender and lemongrass notes. The pack says the sticks have been "created using a special mix of Vetivert and Juniper". Vetivert or vetiver is a fragrant bush grass similar to lemongrass.  Indigo herbs say that "Vetivert essential oil is also known as the “Oil of Tranquility”, with sedative properties that help to diminish feelings of restlessness, anxiety, panic and anger."  

The burn is absolutely delightful. Lasting for around 55 minutes. The scent is distinctive, cleansing, healing, very present in the room, but never too heady or overwhelming. All the notes from the stick are present in the burn, which for me is always a sign of a proper masala. That, and the lingering nature of masala incense scents in the home. And that masala incense sticks last in storage for a long, long time. 

I love this. I'd love to know who made this and the other Aargee Chakra scents.  In the meantime I'm placing this in my Purgatory list, and shall revisit in a month to see if it can be moved into my Top Drawer or if it should be placed in Heavenly. 

Date: Dec 2023   Score: 47

***

Vintage Incense
(Incense brand
not currently available)

Aargee