Ispalla Incense Peru Palo Santo & Myrrh

 

Second of two Ispalla incenses I got from Ephra World, the German online incense shop. They have a selection of five, all priced at 3.35 Euros for a square pack of 10 sticks. The sticks are made by Ispalla, a company with an office in Lima, capital of Peru, and imported into Europe by the Netherlands company Phoenix Import.  As Peru is one of the countries where the South American wood Palo Santo is grown and harvested, and as Palo Santo is something of a desired, almost revered, fragrant wood, which has been used since the time of the Incas (allegedly) as a spiritual cleanser. I love that idea, and shall research further to see what evidence there is for that. The Palo Santo tree (Bursera graveolens) belongs to the same family of trees as produce frankincense and myrrh - Burseraceae; they are known as the incense trees.   

The sticks are quite crude and lumpy. This appears to be proper masala: small pieces of palo santo have been blended into a paste along with myrrh (again, possibly solid pieces as there is not much scent on the stick, though there is some scent, and it could be that a myrrh oil was used), which has then been applied to a plain bamboo splint. Difficult to tell if  the paste has been applied by hand or by machine. Small pieces of dried paste break off. It's all quite charming and exciting - I feel quite close to the making of this incense. It feels like home made incense, and is similar to some craft made incense I have had, rather than a commercial enterprise. There appears to be saltpetre in the mix, as the incense spits and huffs and puffs like a grumpy old man. The ash holds together as it burns, which is what extruded incense does, so this is almost certainly machine made. 

   

There is hardly any scent on the stick - some mild sweetness, some vanilla, faint mineral, some minty, citric palo santo. The fragrance on the burn is delightful. I have been curious about palo santo for a while, and have bought and tried (not yet reviewed) some palo santo sticks. The scent comes on the burn, though the burn is not a good experience because of the spitting from the saltpetre, which is also surprisingly noisy - it's like having a mini-dragon in the room, This is, at times, more like an indoors firework than an incense stick. There is, I suppose, some fun involved in watching it spit and sparkle! Anyway, there is some attractive palo santo aroma: some mint, some sage, some citrus - though I'm not picking up any myrrh. But blended in with the palo santo is the scent of fireworks. Little whiffs of sulphur - not rotten eggs, but that charcoal, ash, metallic, slightly burnt aroma. It's kinda attractive - as a child I used to love the smell of burnt fireworks, and the smell of burnt matches. But it's not really the scent I want in my incense. It sort of intrudes with the cleansing and calming nature of the palo santo, and sort of defeats the purpose really.  I'm not really going to dish this incense, as on the whole I like the cleansing, smudging nature of it. Forgot it as a standard incense and regard it as a smudge, and it becomes workable and interesting, and something a little different. But, really, if Ispalla ground up their santo palo wood a little finer, and used a little bit of charcoal powder instead of potassium nitrate, it would burn smoother, and it would be a whole better (if less dramatic and entertaining) experience.  

This stick reminded me of another incense stick, and I've remembered what: New Age Imports Artisan Five Elements Incense, which I reviewed in March 2022, and score it 41 (top end of Something a Little Bit Special. 


Date: Feb 2024  Score:  24 

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Palo Santo

Incense Around the World