Pushkar incense (sometimes termed "Pushkar Temple") Kobra

 

I got a small batch of incense made in Pushkar from Pilgrims Fair Trade. The maker is unknown.  Presumably because Pushkar is a temple town, Pilgrims describe them as "Temple Incense" ("Pushkar Temple Incense Natural Hand Rolled..."), and so they have become known as "Pushkar Temple" in Western incense blogs and forums. The shops in Pushkar describe them as "Natural" and/or "Hand Rolled", but don't say "Temple". The incenses are very crudely and cheaply made with fragrance oils and agarbatti oil. Some of them are quite heady, with the cheap oils piled high in a crude "Flora" style, roughly like Sai Flora, and there is a homely charisma about that. Others have less oils, and the core material, particularly the thick bamboo stick, makes itself known with a smouldering paper smell. The packs are all 50g, so you get a lot for your money, though I wouldn't say that you get value for your money. They can be summed up as cheap, crude, and sometimes heady with a rough charm. I'm moving through them fairly quickly as the scents are simple and crude - there's really been nothing aesthetically interesting here. But it's fun sometimes to skim quickly through some cheap, crude incense. 

Kobra could refer to the snake or to Kubera, a Hindu god of wealth. It's more likely to be the god of wealth - there are a number of Indian incenses which reflect on the gaining of wealth through burning appropriate auspicious scents. Popular wealth scents may include sandalwood, patchouli, amber, musk, and jasmine - I think that this Kobra uses all of them! Plus a few more! This is a fascinating scent on the stick, and is certainly my favourite so far of the Pushkar incense that I've burned. It's bright, sweet, fruity, floral, with some clean sandalwood mid notes, and a few faint musky base notes. And a minty fresh patchouli is wrapped around it. A half-decent scent, though it does have a car-freshener feel about it - you know the sort: "Fresh n' Fruity", "Fruit Burst", "Strawberries & Cream", etc. Very likeable though. 

The scent on the burn is more subdued. Less bright, less fruity. The core material is, as with some of the other Pushkar incense, making itself known, so there is a smoky scent, like smouldering wood or paper. Quite light, but very present.  The fruit is here, and some gentle sandalwood, and it is OK, but doesn't meet the promise of the scent on the stick. On the whole I quite like this, but not as much as I hoped I would. I'm OK with room freshener type scents, but I like them to be bolder, brighter, more cheeky or interesting than this. As I carried this into the next room, I did get a memory of the old Strawberry Fields by the original Spiritual Sky; it was only for a moment, but I did up the score a little bit. I think this is now my highest rated strawberry scented incense. 


Date: Jan 2025   Score: 29 

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Pushkar incense