Gaura Varshana / Goluka Shiva Nag Champa

 

I bought this branded as Gaura Varshana from Gokula who first sold it in 2014 with the blurb "The powerful and extremely earthly scent of green champa permeates this special scent. A grounding incense with dancing sweet notes. Wonderful and intoxicating. Simply Heavenly!" Gokula now sell it in their connoisseur range as Shiva Nag Champa at £3.95 for 20gms with the blurb "The powerful and extremely earthly scent of green champa permeates this special scent with beautiful nag champa supporting waves. A grounding incense with dancing sweet notes. Wonderful and intoxicating. Simply Heavenly!"  The Gaura/Connoisseur incense sold by Gokula tends to be made by Haridas Madhavdas Sugandhi (HMS) of Pune - in which case this would either be HMS Classic Green Champa or HMS Classic Nag Champa.  But I don't know that for sure. I have a Pure Incense branded Green Champa, which is clearly HMS - it has the vanilla, and the sparkles. And it doesn't match the Gaura/Goluka. But, then again, my stick is a few years old.....  

These sticks appear to be machine extruded charcoal paste - quite soft and flexible, on a green dyed bamboo splint; the finished has then been hand rolled in a thin coating of an orange-brown melnoorva powder. The scent on the stick is slightly volatile, some rubber, some florals, some faint dampness, petrol, and some scents I can't pin down. 

The burn is low and slow, producing very little smoke and fragrance. The best way to experience incense is to allow the scent to inform the room and/or your surroundings. Directly breathing in the smoke in order to smell the scent is a really unhealthy thing to do. However, I get impatient at times when reviewing, and I will waft the smoke toward my face - as I do here. There's not much going on. I'm a little disappointed as this was a sealed packet, and I do find that masala incense will last in storage a good while. This just smells a bit smoky - some woods, some herbs, some warm wool. I feel I might have a bad batch, or I'm just not in the right mood for this fragrance right now. I'll put it aside and burn again in a few days or weeks.  In the meantime, I can't give this a decent score....


Date: March 2024   Score: 25 

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Nag Champa