Temu Small Auspicious Clouds Mugwort

 

Bought from Temu: £1.20 for a tube of 42 pieces. These tiny spiral incense pieces are called small auspicious clouds. They are very cute. A manufacturer is listed on the customs sheet, but it is difficult to make out the name - and my experience with other incense from Temu is that the manufacturer's name may just be a convenience address to comply with customs regulations. The incense maker I have named as "Fujian Incense" were given several different names and addresses - something they had in common was the addresses were all in Fujian. The address for this maker is also in Fujian, though the packaging is different from that of "Fujian Incense", so I don't think this is the same maker. 

The customs sheet with maker's name

Mugwort is a herbaceous plant - the Asian mugwort is used in traditional Chinese medicine. I don't find this to be an attractive scent, so speculate if this is intended mainly for medicinal, cleansing, or smudging purposes rather than for the aesthetic pleasure of the fragrance. Though, mugwort is also known as wormwood as it's in the same plant genus, and I had a Wormwood incense from China that I found delightful. Either that incense used a different plant, or it was differently formulated. This one is nothing like that. 

The scent before lighting the coil is dry, slightly bitter, like a hard biscuit with herbs. The scent on the burn is somewhat acidic, sharp, smudgy, bitter, like damp herbs being scorched in a garden bonfire. This is not good. This is like my previous experience of Chinese incense until I came upon "Fujian Incense". 

Date: March 2025   Score: 17

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Good & bad Chinese incense