The idea of Phool is great - sustainability is cool (indeed, essential - we all need to get into sustainability); and the packaging and presentation is awesome - you even get a decent quality wooden incense catcher. I can well understand why there was a buzz about this incense house. But, as with the Indian Rose cones, the actual incense is crap. Really. It's crap. If the owners of Phool want to get in touch with me and complain. Fair enough. They can do that. But until they actually make an incense stick or cone that smells good, and that I don't want to simply throw away because it just smells smoky and dirty like damp clothing or mouldy plants, then I will continue to say that this is crap.
Great packaging guys, but, phew, the incense is really, really, really bad. I'm not going to throw the incense away. I will be fair and keep it to try again at some point in the future, but combined with my experience with the Indian Rose cones I am not holding out much hope that I will at some point discover that I've missed some pleasant aspect of the fragrance, or that the bad smell will suddenly appear to me to be a pleasant scent. The best points of this, so far, is that sometimes the scent goes away and becomes faint. I have detected no patchouli. The scent on the stick is mint, cedarwood, mushroom, decay.
Recommended retail price on Phool website is 165 Rupees (approx £1.65), but they don't ship to the UK. From Goabay it's 182 Rupees (approx £1.82), postage to the UK is around £15. Aayvaa charge 495 Rupees (approx £4.95), with free shipping. Sometimes available on eBay, such as here for £16.44 with free shipping.
Date: Nov 2023 Score: 15
Recommended retail price on Phool website is 165 Rupees (approx £1.65), but they don't ship to the UK. From Goabay it's 182 Rupees (approx £1.82), postage to the UK is around £15. Aayvaa charge 495 Rupees (approx £4.95), with free shipping. Sometimes available on eBay, such as here for £16.44 with free shipping.
Date: Nov 2023 Score: 15
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Phool is based in Kanpur, UP, one of the most polluted cities in India. I have been to Kanpur over twenty times. Every time I go there I'd get most terrible allergic rush that will not go away until I start taking steroids. It was because of water, which is polluted by enormous amounts of chromium, used excessively by the leather tanning industry. So, the whole idea of using temple flowers from Kanpur for incense making makes me totally sick. I am not sure if those flowers are not toxic. They are certainly washed in that polluted water. And nobody knows what's inside of those flowers, which are considered as waste. The whole Phool thing is marketing and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteGood point about the pollution in Kanpur. It is an industrial city. According to the Kanpur air quality monitor, which is updated daily, most days the air is unhealthy to breathe, and the advice is to wear a mask, and close windows.
DeleteI agree with you on your opinion about phool incenses. I lonely buy their Oudh and Nargis because they smell really good, other than that they don’t make any good incenses. I have found many flower cycled incenses which are amazing like Cycle Rhythm Pushkarini, Tulasi Sugandh Lok Soundarya and Deluxe Sandal, Nirmalaya Incenses (Sandalwood, Tulsi, Mukhalat, Zen, Natural Herbs and Forest wood) and Help-us-green’s Khus.
ReplyDelete*only
DeleteThanks for the recommendations Vid. I'll seek out those which I haven't yet tried.
DeleteWould you know who was first to make flower-cycled incense? Was it Phool? According to Phool's own story, they had the idea in 2015, and launched in 2017.
I saw one video for om incense show which says that Cycle was the first one with their pushkarini.
DeleteI saw one video from Om incense show and she said that Cycle was the first to make flower cycled incense with their Rhythm Pushkarini.
DeleteI watched a couple of those Om Incense Show videos on YouTube. I'm not entirely convinced that she is that knowledgeable. OK for an opinion, but probably not someone to rely on for information. She sometimes refers to the melnoorva or tree bark powder that is used to dust the damp paste as the fragrant masala. This doesn't sit with my conversations with incense houses. Yes, the powder will often pick up a fragrance from oils in the paste, but my understanding is that the powder is not the masala. The dried fragrant ingredients are mixed into the paste. The powder on the outside serves two functions - 1) to stop the sticks from clinging together as they dry, and 2) to give an attractive appearance / the appearance of a masala stick.
DeleteI used to think the powder was the masala. And I sometimes do wonder if fragrant ingredients are included in the powder - but no incense house I've yet spoken to says they do.
Now it is possible that she is right, and I am wrong. I am no expert on incense making. All I can do is ask questions and make observations. But nobody yet (other than Dolly - or is it DeeDee?- on the Om Incense Show) has told me that the powder on the outside is the masala.
Ah, she calls herself DJ.
DeleteMy understanding is that the Melnoorva's main purpose is to prevent incense sticking together, but it can also carry its own fragrance (the inclusion of powdered sandalwood bark or other odoriferous plant matter for example). The main paste mix (Noorva) Is what I generally except as the masala mix, although I'm still unclear on what really qualifies as masala.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're right regarding noorva being fragrant and melnoorva not. That matches my understanding of what I've been told and read. I hadn't though, until you pointed it out, realised that noorva was used in the paste. I thought that noorva was used the same as melnoorva on the outside of the paste.
DeleteHave you got Kashinath Patwardhan's paper - "Agarbathi. (Incense Sticks) Manufacture. Made Simple"? I have, but hadn't really consulted it properly. I've just gone back to it now and read:
"Noorva :
Mixture of odoriferous fibrous materials and other fragrant substances that have the
property of combustion.
Melnoorva :
This is a similar form of Noorva Containing numerous odoriferous fibrous materials
that have the property of combustion, but is applied over the rolled mass, so that the
bathis, when rolled should not stick to each other as well as to the hands of the worker who rolls the mass over the stick. This Melnoorva normally contains Charcoal Dust in the ratio 1:2 and Jigatu in 2-3%. The addition of Jigatu helps in keeping the palms free from the sticky material after agarbathies are dried."
And on the page talking about masala:
"Ingredients used in making Masala, Flora, Darbar Agarbathies
Various ingredients are added to make a masala bathi.
Few materials are as under:
Dust (Known Generally as Kuppam Dust)
Charcoal (Best Quality)
Jigatu (Best Quality Adhesive)
Honey (Natural and Pure, Moisture Free)
Halmaddi / Shilaras (Gum Resin)
Perfume (Approved Sample)
Heat honey and halmaddi or silaras in a separate vessel to get a homogenious
mass. To this add the above powder mix along with the perfume. If required add little
quantity of water. (Not more than 15 grams). And make a mellow dough.
The above dough is ready for rolling over bamboo splits. The rolled bathi is
rolled over NOORVA made as under :
5 to 15 grams of perfume to be added to white dust and seived to get uniform
perfumed dust.
Allow 24 hours after rolling to mature.
The agarbathi is ready for sale as this does not require drying.
By deleting kuppam dust and adding equal quantities of Herbal powder mixture
(which is a secret of the manufacture) you get special effects difficult to duplicate."
On another page:
"BASE AGARBATHI RAW MATERIAL
Out of 18,000 species of Indian flora 1,300 species are known to have fragrant
essence bearing roots, stems, barks, twigs, leaves, fruits, berries, flowers and seeds.
A secret formula for the base mixture called NOORVA can be created by the
permutation and combination of the above mentioned essence bearing items of
natural origin. The secret of mixing and preparing the desired Noorva was a part of
the family heritage bequeathed from one generation to another. Today fashioning of
agarbathies in India combines the inherited art with sophisticated production
methods, resulting in agarbathies with an amazing array of fragrances. Some of the
known and available items for Noorva are as follows : as the industry took roots in the
Southern parts of India, Most of the names are in Indian Languages viz : Kannada,
Telugu, Tamil, Hindi & Sanskrit.
Animal and Marine :
1. Nakla ( Cuttle Fish Wing)
2. Ambergris
3. Civet
4. Musk
Natural Oils :
1. Sandal Oil and Khus Oil
2. Flower Oil (now called Attars)
3. Rose
4. Jasmine (Chameli)
5. Kewra
6. Khus (Vetivert)
Miscellaneous Items :
1. Honey
2. Jonibella (Jaggery)
3. Rose & Kewra Water
4. Attar residues and other residues, ex : Sandal & Hina"
When I first read the paper I didn't pay close attention to the parts where Patwardhan is saying that Noorva is the fragrant ingredient. Looking again I can see that now. Though, like you, I'm now not understanding the difference between masala and noorva.
Yes Steve I have the PDF of that publication, it has been an insight into modern Indian incense production. I do however find some sections within it confusing, I suspect the author assumes some prior knowledge of the industry and omits some details we would no doubt find invaluable. I also think that a good deal of the books content will not apply to the cottage industry sized producers, perhaps who's incense we seek the most, and associate with more traditional methods/ingredients.
DeleteRegarding the distinction between masala/noorva, I don't think one can be defined. Personally I think the term Masala could be dropped from incense descriptions as it doesn't really mean anything in today's market, but that would seed even more confusion. I suspect we are stuck with the term even though it does nothing to inform the buyer of quality or production method in modern incense.
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ReplyDelete