B.G Pooja Store Nag Champa

  

This is the third of the incenses that reader Eugene Andrushchenko brought back from the B.G   pooja store  in Tiruvannamalai, near the Arunachalesvara Temple. It's not clear if the shop owner has them made up for him by a local maker, buys them unbranded from a known maker, or has his own cottage industry. The sticks vary in thickness and consistency, so there is little quality control, suggesting that this is small scale local production; but that is not certain as even respected  brand names can have a few poorly rolled sticks now and again.  

The sticks are a standard charcoal-based paste hand-rolled onto bamboo splints of varying thickness, and then coated in a woody fine powder or melnoorva to prevent the sticks from gluing together as they dry. There is a liquid scent involved - the paste is still a little soft and moist, and there is a volatile scent on the stick. Because of the liquid scent, the aroma on the stick is mainly the volatile top notes so is light, flowery, a little sharp. It is quite delightful and summery. 

The scent on the burn grabbed me the first time I lit up one of the sticks. It took me back to the heady days of my youth when I was a young hippy in the Seventies. It's an evocative, sultry, woody, beautiful scent. I'm glad Eugene gave me a generous amount of sticks to sample, as I've been able to repeat that experience a few times on several different days.  And each time I've lit one of these sticks I've been impressed. Both the scent and the experience remind me of the first time I burned Satya's Nag Champa. The balance between creamy, sexy, sensual sandalwood and light, floral, joyful champaka is sublime and delightful and thrills me. 

I've thought about this incense quite a bit over the past few months. The other two incenses from this shop - the Sambrani and the Natural, are pretty much what I'd expect from an unknown local store keeper making his own incense: fairly average, decent enough stuff. Well, I'd expect either fairly average, decent enough or something cheap and grotty. But I wouldn't expect top level incense. For me this is as good as Satya. And I suspect that the makers have tried hard to emulate Satya's Nag Champa. I don't think there has been much creativity or art involved in this incense - simply a desire to mix a sandalwood oil with a champaka oil in a blend that smells like Satya's Nag Champa. I suppose this is the equivalent of buying a Rolex from a street market in South-east Asia. With the difference that the street market Rolex may look like a Rolex, but won't have the lasting quality; while this Nag Champa is likely to be using the same or similar easy to obtain ingredients as the Satya original.  So this isn't an incense that gets credit from me for originality or creativity, but certainly gets credit for smelling gorgeous.  Given that it smells as good as the first time I (knowingly) experienced Satya's Nag Champa back in 2012, and is the best Nag Champa I have smelled since then, I am putting this  incense in my World Class category.  And I intend to have a Nag Champa Burn Off soon, where I'll gather a selection of Nag Champas, and we'll do a smell test to see which we prefer.  

Date: March 2023   Score:  48 

 

Under my new rules any incense which I score highly enough for it to be placed in my Top Drawer - World Class category, needs first to be put in Purgatory to wait for a second review at least a month after the first review.  It's been around five months since my review of this B.G Pooja Store Nag Champa was placed in Purgatory with a score of 48, so well overdue for a second review.  Boosh! This easily passes the test. This is a truly gorgeous incense. I'd give it 50 if this was an original scent, but as it's a copy of Satya's Nag Champa I will hold it at 48. But, wow, what a divine scent this is! 


Date: Aug 2023   Score: 48 

Nag Champa