These foil wrapped sticks are made by Balarama of Thailand. Balarama produces incense for companies in Europe and America, and they are one of the main sources for the modern Spiritual Sky incense (which used to be awesome in the 70s). They are highly likely to be the source for Kuumba incense - which has been trending for a while. They look the same, burn the same, are made from the same material, are the same size, smell the same, and even use the same names. There are a number of outlets for Balarama's foil-wrapped incense in the UK - often clothing shops, and all are cheaper than the Kuumba branded sticks, though don't carry the cachet of the Kuumba brand name.
I find it interesting that Balarama incense is sold as own brand incense mainly by clothing retailers, such as Zam Zam and Wicked Dragon, or online shops that otherwise don't sell incense. The scents are not conventional incense scents, they are bright, modern, and different - even the standard single scents like sandalwood and frankincense have a modern twist. There is a big market out there of people who are not attracted to the old hippy-dippy image of incense, and wouldn't think to go into an incense shop either online or on the high street. So placing modern perfumed incense in clothing retailers, or - like Kuumba, associating the incense with trendy clothing firms like Carhartt, brings the incense in reach of a new, young audience, and makes incense cool and acceptable.
I sometimes take photos of incense in the trendy upside-down holder sent to me by Aida of Incenseburnerholder.com; though once the photos are taken, I transfer the sticks to a more conventional flat burner, as the upright burners burn too hot and too quickly, so some of the more fragile top notes get lost in the heat. Shame, as the upside-down holders look cool, and they neatly collect the ash.
This is the first tea-tree incense I've encountered, though they are out there. Tea-tree oil is traditionally considered to have several medicinal and therapeutic qualities, and modern science is looking into the oil to see how true these beliefs are.
The scent on the stick is volatile, mouldy, pine, mushrooms, damp leaves, antiseptic, woody spice, mint tea, cleaning liquid. Phew! Quite promising. Sadly, as it sometimes the case with lower quality perfume-dipped incense - especially those using wood powder instead of charcoal, the scent on the burn is not as distinct. The burn scent here is faint, soft, and with a focus on smouldering damp sawdust (which I'm sure was not the intention). As it settles, there is some light awareness of the scents found on the stick, which can be considered to be tea-tree. Softly pleasant.
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