Nandita is a well established incense house in Mumbai. They make a range of incense, including dhoop powder and bakhoor. They also make decent masala incense. It can be a bit variable, but mostly it's good stuff, and at times can be excellent. There has been discussion for some years that Nandita both outsources some of its incense, and also makes incense for others. The exact relationship that various Indian incense houses have with each other is not always clear to outsiders.
This incense, Aura Cleansing, is a machine extruded and perfumed incense. The paste is hard and crumbly, and appears to be wood powder rather than charcoal. The scent on the stick is very perfumed. Quite soapy. Mild volatility. Some floral notes, some citric. It's quite synthetic, but pleasant. I can imagine it would be quite popular.
The burn scent resembles the cold scent on the stick, though mingled with a smouldering paper scent, which I tend to associate with incense that uses wood powder as the combustible instead of charcoal. All in all an acceptable room freshener scent, though not something that really grabs my interest. It resembles some incenses by Balarama of Thailand
Date: Dec 2024 Score: 25
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Good review, Steve. There is a trend among incense producers in India to brand just any charcoal-based incense as toxic. This was perhaps started by Phool. In my view, it is just a false USP creation strategy of not using any charcoal. But the fact remains that charcoal-based incense is far superior and cleaner than the sawdust type.
ReplyDeleteYes. All independent, scientific research I read says this. Wood smoke is toxic and has a scent (which can be attractive if the wood is fragrant, but can simply be "smouldering wood/paper/plants" if the wood powder is not from a fragrant wood). Burning charcoal has little smoke, little toxicity, and almost no scent. There are comments on incense forums and blogs which say the opposite of this, and I can only imagine they are getting that information from unreliable sources such as you say - incense houses which use wood powder instead of charcoal; or they are simply making erroneous assumptions.
DeleteI am currently considering the impact on incense fragrance of the bamboo stick. When I do searches on this, what I get is information from makers or people affiliated with them, such as retailers, which say that the best and most expensive incenses don't use a bamboo stick because the smell of the burning bamboo negatively impacts the fragrance of the incense.
DeleteWhen I burn a bamboo stick by itself (without any incense paste), I do get a smell, but it is very slight, and rather neutral. Considerably less intrusive than using wood powder.
I like burning dhoops, which don't have a bamboo stick. I especially like the thin, dry dhoops, such as BIC's Panchavati. However, the bulk of Indian incense has a bamboo core, and this form of incense is copied in other countries, particularly North and South America. The bamboo core allows the incense to be easily made, and it results in a sturdy and convenient form of incense that is easy to use, and which the majority of people around the world are now familiar with.
Why did you decide to use the dhoop form, rather than use a bamboo core for your incense?
In terms of using charcoal in incense, I believe I understand why incense makers prefer not to use it. The main reason is that high-quality charcoal is significantly more expensive. Another issue is that if the charcoal supplier is not checked, it may contain coal adultration, which can affect the incense burning process. Coal burns at much higher temperatures, which could cause problems when burning incense. As for bamboo sticks, we avoid using them because they interfere with the fragrance. Additionally, in Hindu culture, burning bamboo is prohibited. The agarbatti (incense stick) practice is relatively recent. From my understanding of traditional rituals, priests used to create incense by blending various materials, including ghee, which gave it a moist texture. This mixture was then burned on coconut husks, a practice that is still observed today.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was around 1900 in Mysore that bamboo sticks were first used in making incense. It was to make incense production quicker and easier and cheaper. And the resulting sticks are quite sturdy and convenient.
DeletePersonally I've not experienced the bamboo stick as a noticeable element in the fragrance. Usually when comparing the same scent from the same incense house in cone and stick versions, it is the stick version I usually prefer if there is a preference in the scent itself, because I find the stick diffuses the scent in a more measured and agreeable manner. But I can't recall doing a controlled side by side comparison of several cone and stick scents. That mighty be fun to do.
The problem with the cone or dhoop manufacturers is that very few houses make them using charcoal, and most are dipped. The wet dhoop variety is the only charcoal-based that I have found on the market, but that has other problems like the presence of rubber. With charcoal as a base, it is quite easy to manage the diffusion and the smoke because other ingredients produce smoke and not the charcoal itself.
DeleteFragranced rubber (natural, from the rubber tree) was used by the Mayan civilisation as part of their rituals. It is thought that the rubber was used as a fixative, binder, and flammable source - so quite useful. I assume that rubber process oil is used in Indian incense for roughly the same reasons. But RPO would be a by-product of the petro-chemical industry, so somewhat less appealing!
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