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| Second review - scroll down for earlier |
There is a faint fragrance on the stick. Mildly acidic - a slight notion of rice vinegar. The aroma of new, plastic plimsolls (or cheap running shoes / trainers). It's light and curiously bright and pleasant, though not adorable.
The scent on the burn is quite light and subtle, as is common with Asian incense. I get impatient and waft the faint smoke toward me only to get the aroma of scorching paper from the use of wood powder as the combustible. I have found it is better to be patient with Asian incense, and to allow the scent to drift across. And, for someone like me who prefers to get to grips with a scent, it is better to burn several sticks at the same time. I do find that by the time the sticks have burned down about halfway I am able to detect and appreciate the subtle delicacy of the fragrance. It is a light slightly sweet and acidic pale wood aroma gently touched with flower blossoms. It is an astonishingly minor fragrance - very ordinary and everyday. With the windows open on a summer's day I get much more interesting, attractive, meaningful, and lively scents drifting in. I seriously struggle to come to terms with why someone would want to burn something like this. I suspect that the scent is not that important. I think it would be more the auspicious aspect of burning incense. This is the sort of incense that I frequently encountered in temples on my tour of Southeast Asia. Anyway, yes there is a scent. And it's not ugly. But for someone who enjoys the scent of incense, particularly rich and/or interesting scents, this is a disappointment.
The scent on the burn is quite light and subtle, as is common with Asian incense. I get impatient and waft the faint smoke toward me only to get the aroma of scorching paper from the use of wood powder as the combustible. I have found it is better to be patient with Asian incense, and to allow the scent to drift across. And, for someone like me who prefers to get to grips with a scent, it is better to burn several sticks at the same time. I do find that by the time the sticks have burned down about halfway I am able to detect and appreciate the subtle delicacy of the fragrance. It is a light slightly sweet and acidic pale wood aroma gently touched with flower blossoms. It is an astonishingly minor fragrance - very ordinary and everyday. With the windows open on a summer's day I get much more interesting, attractive, meaningful, and lively scents drifting in. I seriously struggle to come to terms with why someone would want to burn something like this. I suspect that the scent is not that important. I think it would be more the auspicious aspect of burning incense. This is the sort of incense that I frequently encountered in temples on my tour of Southeast Asia. Anyway, yes there is a scent. And it's not ugly. But for someone who enjoys the scent of incense, particularly rich and/or interesting scents, this is a disappointment.
Date: Aug 2025 Score: 20
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| First review |
A mahoosive pack of Chinese incense. I must be mad. Bought for £4.50 from Tradewinds. I must be mad. I have a low opinion of Chinese incense. And I am reluctant to pay much more than £2 for a single packet of incense. But there is a tradition in East Asian countries of selling incense in large amounts. And I was on Tradewinds buying some East Asian beers, and I just tipped a few incense bundles into my basket while I was there, and most were - like this - large bundles. But this is the largest bundle I bought. Indeed, this must be the largest single packet of incense I have ever bought. There are likely to be well over 400 sticks in this bundle - probably close to 500. At around 1p per stick these sticks work out very cheap. But do they represent good value for money?
I can find little information on the company, Chan Luen Hing, other than a blog which has researched that the company was "one of the more prominent joss stick companies from the early 1900s" in Macau, and a trade journal which suggests they were founded in 1878 in Hong Kong, and that is still their location. Macau and Hong Kong are close to each other both physically and economically, both being Western trading posts on the mouth of the Pearl River, so it is not unlikely that the company had trading posts in both places. It would be appropriate for the company to have a base in Macau, as that is the place where Portugal first traded incense with China during the Ming Dynasty. The term "joss stick" is one that was used in the UK in the Sixties and Seventies, and I still tend to use it, though the term "incense stick" has become more common. The word "joss" began with the Portuguese in Macau - it is a corruption of the Latin word "deus", for god, and was applied to the incense sticks as they were often used in religious ceremonies. There is no difference between a joss stick and an incense stick - they are different names for the same thing, but these days the term is mainly used in East Asia, especially China.
The sticks are, as seems common for East Asian incense, machine made ("mechanically extruded" might be a more appropriate term). The sticks are 10 inches long with 7 inches of hard pale coloured extruded paste on a scarlet coloured machine cut bamboo splint. There is basically no effective aroma on the sticks.
There's little more aroma during the burn than on the stick. A gentle awareness of burning wood powder. It's a light wood aroma. A bit beech, a bit sandalwood. Quite subtle and delicate, but more like the smell of a used firework than that of a fragrant incense. Hugely disappointing, especially considering the size of the packet. Oh well, I hope the cats like them, as these are more outhouse than inhouse sticks.
I can find little information on the company, Chan Luen Hing, other than a blog which has researched that the company was "one of the more prominent joss stick companies from the early 1900s" in Macau, and a trade journal which suggests they were founded in 1878 in Hong Kong, and that is still their location. Macau and Hong Kong are close to each other both physically and economically, both being Western trading posts on the mouth of the Pearl River, so it is not unlikely that the company had trading posts in both places. It would be appropriate for the company to have a base in Macau, as that is the place where Portugal first traded incense with China during the Ming Dynasty. The term "joss stick" is one that was used in the UK in the Sixties and Seventies, and I still tend to use it, though the term "incense stick" has become more common. The word "joss" began with the Portuguese in Macau - it is a corruption of the Latin word "deus", for god, and was applied to the incense sticks as they were often used in religious ceremonies. There is no difference between a joss stick and an incense stick - they are different names for the same thing, but these days the term is mainly used in East Asia, especially China.
The sticks are, as seems common for East Asian incense, machine made ("mechanically extruded" might be a more appropriate term). The sticks are 10 inches long with 7 inches of hard pale coloured extruded paste on a scarlet coloured machine cut bamboo splint. There is basically no effective aroma on the sticks.
There's little more aroma during the burn than on the stick. A gentle awareness of burning wood powder. It's a light wood aroma. A bit beech, a bit sandalwood. Quite subtle and delicate, but more like the smell of a used firework than that of a fragrant incense. Hugely disappointing, especially considering the size of the packet. Oh well, I hope the cats like them, as these are more outhouse than inhouse sticks.
hahaha you are quite an explorer, Steve!
ReplyDeleteI have a curiosity, that's for certain.
DeleteYou can try another Hong Kong brand called Hong Kong Incense Company, which only using natural herbs and ingredients to make incense, which is high quality and made in Hong Kong.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. I did look them up, but prices with shipping are a tad too high for me.
Delete