Inca Aromas Priprioca

 

I love exploring incense from around the world, and found these Inca Aromas sticks, made in Brazil, on the USA website Exotic Incense, who export to the UK. $7 for four short sticks (plus shipping) is not cheap, and though the sticks do burn for a decent time (around an hour and a half - which is only a little longer than the average stick), it's the opportunity to get hold of incense that is not made in Asia that got my interest, and made me feel the price was worthwhile. 

I'm curious about the connection between the company and the Inca Empire culture. The company was founded in 1993, with the current owners taking over in 2001, and moving the factory to its current location in Brazil in 2009. The two best known incenses associated with indigenous peoples of South America are palo santo wood and copal resin.  I've not yet looked deeply into the history of incense in the Inca Empire - I shall enjoy doing that. If anyone already has information or links, please let me know!  I have asked the company for more info about the Inca connection, and will update this post when they get back to me. 

Brazil has a strong incense culture. They import a large amount of incense, primarily from India, and there are a number of small local incense producers, such as Inca Aromas, Bright Side, and Nirvana, which export, mainly to the US. Now that I have largely given up on getting quickly though my backlog of Indian incense - I will be exploring more of these small Brazilian producers in coming months. 

There are four sticks in the pack, each stick is just over 5 inches long, with around 4 1/2 inches of firm, semi-soft, semi-brittle, semi-sticky 1/4 inch thick black paste extruded onto a plain stick. There is an engaging herby aroma on the stick, quite cleansing and quite natural with some touches of spice. Lighting is slightly difficult. As the sticks are quite thick, it requires holding a flame to the stick for a long while before it catches. There may be some sparks and small bits of glowing incense falling - these tend to go out quickly, but a few have left smudges on my wooden desk. I found it best, when lit, to leave the flame for a while to really get a hold of the stick. If blowing out too soon, I found that the stick would quickly go out.  I did blow a bit to increase the burn to encourage it to catch, but that does result in more sparks, so I preferred just to leave the flame for a while.

The smoke and aroma is surprisingly gentle for such a thick stick, though leaving it to burn for the full hour and a half indoors would be a little overwhelming, as the smoke does build and linger over time. The scent is dry, spicy, herby, woody, attractive. There are aspects to it which remind me of Indian dhoop incense - especially the wet dhoops made with ghee. Little sharp tones, and a brittle, chalky sense of charcoal. I am charmed and intrigued by the aroma, which is warm, calming, exotic, and fulfilling. There's a fair amount of churchy frankincense - pine, citrus, warmth, comfort, calming but also somehow uplifting and quietly thrilling as its works its way inside. 

   

The contents include white breu resin, which comes from the bark of  the  Alma Cegueira tree - also spelt as almécega and almíscar, and also known simply as breu.  There's also frankincense - which I thought I was smelling, but apparently breu smells like frankincense, and is known as "the Brazilian frankincense". Priprioca is an aromatic sedge, which is presumably where I'm getting the herby, faintly sage like, aroma from.  Salt is a curious ingredient, and that is possibly why the stick sometimes sparks. 

All in all I really like this incense, and want to discover more. 

Date: May 2024    Score: 39 

***

Incense Around the World

  

Inca Aromas