A gift from Irene of Rauchfahne, who as well as running her incense blog, also makes her own incense. SamsaSpoon is the name she uses on a Reddit incense forum, and on her emails. It is how I first got to know her. She sent me this homemade incense a good while ago, along with other samples, but it got lost among my incense packages, and was only uncovered this year as I've been focused on sorting out my "legendary" backlog. As usual I know nothing about this incense, other than what is on the piece of paper in the photo which gives the name and the ingredients. I like to approach each incense blind, as a regular consumer. I may ask questions afterwards, but tend not to ask questions up front. I know from beer and wine sampling, that it is not uncommon to pick up aromas and flavours from suggestions, even when those aromas and flavours are not present. Put the idea of chocolate in your mind, and you may start to smell and taste it, even if there's nothing in your mouth. Not always, but the potential is there. Having had my initial experience, I'm really happy then to discuss it with others, and to read other reviews, and to note what I may have missed. And it can be fun to go back and see if I can discover what others have picked up.
Anyway. What we have here are six very cute and attractive triangle shapes. They are titchy, with one side coated in gold. They look like some kind of exotic hors d'oeuvre or mini dessert. There is a gentle, subtle aroma on the pieces - earthy, herbal, somewhat savoury, inclining to curry. Resinous notes, some wood. Quite fresh and uplifting. I'm quite happy to sniff some more. I like incense that reveals something of its true sense before the burn.
I put one piece in my electric burner on a gentle heat, then leave the room to find a new tealight for my candle burner. When I return there is a soft, pleasant aroma of cumin - woody, spicy, some aniseed, and touches of warm maple syrup. The aroma on the candle burner is similar, though more herbal. There is no smoke from either burner. When I lowered the incense on the candle burner enough to produce smoke, the scent became acrid, so I raised it again. The scent from the electric burner, as with the previous SamsaSpoon incense, Nerikoh Night Leaves, started to become a little muddled and muggy, a little like old, damp clothes, while the scent from the candle burner remained fresh and delicious, with sweet, spicy, milk-pudding notes developing. I'm pleased with the sweet notes. The cumin scent was OK, but not really what I want from an incense. I like food and cooking scents, but as food or cooking scents. I kinda want my incense to offer me something else, something more.
Copal Oro, one of the ingredients, is a tree resin, which some sources call the "frankincense of America". It can come from several trees, such as copaifera officinalis, to produce a resin or oil with various uses. I have reviewed several incenses with copal - New Age Black Copal, Soul Sticks Aztec Aromas Copal, and Native-Spirit Copal. I have found them all attractive. The "Oro" I assume to be "Gold". I picked up the cedarwood, and the dragon's blood, though I'm unsure about the other ingredients. Calamus root has a spicy, cinnamon note, which is probably where I got the sweet, spicy milk-pudding notes. Dragonwood is given by Irene as an alternative name for juniperus chinensis - the Chinese juniper. Galangal is related to ginger. Tragacanth is a tree gum, and I assume was used as a binder. So, it appears the ingredients are largely woody and spicy. They work well together - there was no clash. The result is a clean and vibrant fragrance which is woody and spicy.
I enjoyed it. And I liked looking up the ingredients, as some of them I wasn't aware of. For my own taste, I would have liked there to be more strength or impact or presence in the fragrance. And either more depth in the wood, or more sweetness. Or both. I found it more interesting and intriguing than delightful. But I did enjoy it. And I found the presentation of the incense in the gold coloured mini-triangles to be very cute and attractive. Irene has posted the recipe here.
Anyway. What we have here are six very cute and attractive triangle shapes. They are titchy, with one side coated in gold. They look like some kind of exotic hors d'oeuvre or mini dessert. There is a gentle, subtle aroma on the pieces - earthy, herbal, somewhat savoury, inclining to curry. Resinous notes, some wood. Quite fresh and uplifting. I'm quite happy to sniff some more. I like incense that reveals something of its true sense before the burn.
I put one piece in my electric burner on a gentle heat, then leave the room to find a new tealight for my candle burner. When I return there is a soft, pleasant aroma of cumin - woody, spicy, some aniseed, and touches of warm maple syrup. The aroma on the candle burner is similar, though more herbal. There is no smoke from either burner. When I lowered the incense on the candle burner enough to produce smoke, the scent became acrid, so I raised it again. The scent from the electric burner, as with the previous SamsaSpoon incense, Nerikoh Night Leaves, started to become a little muddled and muggy, a little like old, damp clothes, while the scent from the candle burner remained fresh and delicious, with sweet, spicy, milk-pudding notes developing. I'm pleased with the sweet notes. The cumin scent was OK, but not really what I want from an incense. I like food and cooking scents, but as food or cooking scents. I kinda want my incense to offer me something else, something more.
Copal Oro, one of the ingredients, is a tree resin, which some sources call the "frankincense of America". It can come from several trees, such as copaifera officinalis, to produce a resin or oil with various uses. I have reviewed several incenses with copal - New Age Black Copal, Soul Sticks Aztec Aromas Copal, and Native-Spirit Copal. I have found them all attractive. The "Oro" I assume to be "Gold". I picked up the cedarwood, and the dragon's blood, though I'm unsure about the other ingredients. Calamus root has a spicy, cinnamon note, which is probably where I got the sweet, spicy milk-pudding notes. Dragonwood is given by Irene as an alternative name for juniperus chinensis - the Chinese juniper. Galangal is related to ginger. Tragacanth is a tree gum, and I assume was used as a binder. So, it appears the ingredients are largely woody and spicy. They work well together - there was no clash. The result is a clean and vibrant fragrance which is woody and spicy.
I enjoyed it. And I liked looking up the ingredients, as some of them I wasn't aware of. For my own taste, I would have liked there to be more strength or impact or presence in the fragrance. And either more depth in the wood, or more sweetness. Or both. I found it more interesting and intriguing than delightful. But I did enjoy it. And I found the presentation of the incense in the gold coloured mini-triangles to be very cute and attractive. Irene has posted the recipe here.
You pick up a curry-like cumin scent, interesting!
ReplyDeleteIt does have a bit more of a foody touch to it then my blends usually do, I guess.
When I started making incense sticks, I searched my existing recipes for blends that have a ratio of ingredients allowing them to burn on their own and this was one of them.
I made the recipe into sticks, but I had to deem them a total disaster, lol. They burned just fine, but the scent was like using black smoked ham to perfume your living room. XD Just awful. I blame the Juniper berries and wood.
The initial recipe called for red sandalwood, but I substituted it with the Juniper wood as it becomes increasingly difficult to get and I found the "Dragonwood" very well suited. ;)
Ages ago, I posted the recipe for the loose Dragon blend on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Incense/comments/d9iod9/dragon_recipe_in_comments/
You're right, Tragacanth is the binder. The Gold Copal I use is likely Bursera microphylla. The gold powder is mica-based food colouring.
I believe I sent you some pressed incense called Habibi, but I'm not sure if it was with this shipment or the second one. The ingredients will be more up your alley, but I'm not sure if you'll find it stronger than this one.
You sent me two packets? You know, I do have this notion that there is a package from you up in the loft, which is why I was surprised when this package turned up downstairs.
DeleteI'm tempted to send Chrissie up to find it*, but I really must focus on shifting what's downstairs first.
*I can get into the loft, but it is a struggle for me because I damaged my back in 1999, so Chrissie insists that she goes up there.
The second package would be the one with the Stone Pine Sticks you asked me to send you. I remember that I put in some extra stick samples, but IDK if it was something else too.
DeleteMaybe they are in the first one. It's similar style, discs and pentagons, gold and brown.
I am tempted to call this native American amber! Very nice shape of incense!
ReplyDeleteThe gold triangles are very pretty! I find the fragrance of calamus root so difficult to describe! It almost smells like root beer to me.
ReplyDeleteOh. That might be the aniseed scent then.
DeleteThe calamus root is from my garden. It's really difficult to describe. The fresh leaves remind me of orange soft cakes for some reason.
DeleteThis source says:" Calamus root is known for its sweet, earthy scent with hints of musk, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and even lemon."
Delete