S Mansukhlal Loban Agarbathi

 

From Popat Stores - 100g for £2.99, which is little more than it costs in India (200 Rupees - approx £2). This is the first incense I've had from S Mansukhlal of Mumbai, a small to medium company founded in 1966, who mostly deal in resins, though they do have a range of incense sticks. 

While loban is regarded in the West as the Indian term for benzoin, or any tree resin, in reality loban is usually a resin mix involving benzoin and other gums and resins.  It is popular in India as a Sambrani Cup, such as Guru Vandana, and as a means to dry and fragrant women's hair. 

The scent on the stick is fresh: cool mineral, icing sugar, mild vanilla, a touch of sparkly spice. There's an edge of chalk dust, concrete, and a winter's morning on a cliff top above the ocean. Nice. 

The scent on the burn is cleansing, with echoes of the scent on the stick: cool, dusty, mineral, icing sugar, some vanilla; though there are additional notes of pine and frankincense, which lifts it slightly. I tend to like loban so I'm enjoying this. There are few loban incenses I have not enjoyed. There is a good annual harvest of natural benzoin, so most loban incenses will likely use the natural scent, though it will almost certainly be the more common Sumatra rather than the pricier Siam which will be used. Both are good, though the Siam is lighter in colour, and slightly sweeter. The Sumatra benzoin will be slightly spicy, as this incense is, and a tad more musky, as this incense is. Also, the Siam benzoin would be a little cloying if too much is used. With the woody, pine, and frankincense notes here, it is clear that this is a loban mix in which benzoin has been blended with other resins. I like it. 

Date: Jan 2025    Score: 37 

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Loban / Sambrani