Incense In The Wind

Burner Burner - Carhartt jacket incense burner

Saturday, 24 May 2025

Monsoon (Good Incense / Bhagwan) Sambrani From Heaven

 


Sambrani is the South Indian name for loban - which is usually a benzoin based resin mix. I generally like Loban/Sambrani, though it is mainly burned for its cleansing power and other properties rather more than the aesthetic qualities of the aroma, which can vary from neutral and mineral via pine and medicine to pleasantly sweet with balsamic vanilla notes. The general use in India is as a cleansing/ritual scent, though is also used for drying hair, as well as a general pleasing fragrance.  

The scent on the stick is benzoin forward sweet vanilla - there are other, more interesting, notes underneath the vanilla, but the vanilla is rather dominant and distracting. I like the scent - vanilla is immediately likeable, but it doesn't take me far, and interest fades after a little while. It's like -wow! And then, yeah, ok, what else can you show me? But that initial wow! is quite powerful and pleasing, and sets up a positivity about the stick. 

The scent on the burn is attractive. More interesting and less sweet than the scent on the stick. This is where those notes I picked up underneath the vanilla are coming through. The vanilla from the benzoin is still here, but it's now joined by the mineral notes I tend to pick up from the loban resin mix. Also some herbs, a bit of smoky wood. It's a natural, calming, and interesting fragrance. Very much loban/sambrani - a good, earthy, resinous fragrance sweetened by vanilla, and made interesting by the herbal and chalky mineral notes. I like this. 

This is one of the incenses that Eugene of Bhagwan Incense discovered on one of his explorations across Southern India. My sample pack is branded Good Incense - a more budget friendly range than Bhagwan Incense. Eugene changed the name of Good Incense to Monsoon Incense last year, though the Good Incense name is still present in some outlets on the internet. This is available from Monsoon at 2.50 Euros for 15gms. A fair price for decent incense. 


Date: May 2025    Score: 38 
***




No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment: