Berk Blue Line Balalaika

 

A sample of Berk's Blue Line Balailaika sent to me by Irene of Rauchfahne. Berk say their Blue Line is a "special line", though it's not clear what is meant by "special".  There is a sub-title of "Secret Vision", though this appears to have been dropped on current packs.  Berk Innere Welten (Inner World) are a German importer founded in 1991, who market their own brand incense, sourced from HMS, who supply incense for a variety of own brand retailers, and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram who make Cottage incense, and supply a number of own brand retailers.  On the whole I found the Berk brand incense to be fairly decent or acceptable everyday stuff, but they are not a provider that interests me. I'm OK with burning their incense, but I'm not going to be searching it out, unless a bargain is offered to me. 

Scent on the stick is very sweet, jammy, vanilla, fruit, vanilla, fruit, vanilla, in a spiral! Very likeable in small doses, though I'm not sure how I could cope with it over a longer period. I'm hoping that the top notes are toned down, and there will be some woods and/or other base notes come in on the burn. 

The fragrance is more restrained on the burn, though it remains sweet and fruity. Cherry and banana are the fruits that I am constructing in my mind. Yeah, this is nice. Soft, a tad smoky, but pleasantly fruity. Gradually, the burn gets dry and spiky, and edging toward Cottage  style incense - not the heritage range, but one of their modern scents. There's coffee and chocolate coming through now. Perhaps there's some frankincense in there for those soft coffee notes, and some benzoin for the vanilla. There's musk and woods and soft burn notes - attractive burn, like burnt toast. It's nice. Really nice. I like this. I am tempted to explore some of Cottage's modern incense sticks. 

Date: Feb 2025   Score: 31

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Berk

Reviewed on Rauchfahne