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| Second review - scroll down for earlier |
I ordered Prabhupada from Vrindavan Bazaar earlier this year, and what they sent me, in a bag handwritten with the name (see below) was machine-extruded charcoal paste sticks without a melnoorva/masala coating. Brief Chemistry did the same thing, though what he received was a hand-rolled charcoal paste covered in the fragrant brown wood powder called melnoorva/masala. It looks like a standard masala stick.
The scent on the brown stick is woody and floral, though also with some vague chemical/rubber notes. The fragrance on the black stick is sweet, somewhat volatile and chemical, with a floral note that inclines toward violets on this visit (previously I felt it was rose - and, yes, I can see that again now). The fragrance on the sticks is distinctly different. The difference in appearance could be down to different production methods, but the scent on the stick is not similar.
When lighting up the brown stick, the flame is small, with faint grey smoke. The black stick had a slightly larger flame, and produced a significant though not huge amount of black smoke. Both sticks use charcoal as the combustible, so the black smoke will likely be coming from a chemical additive, such as DEP.
The scent on the burn of the brown stick is soft, woody, fruity, floral. It's a gentle, laid back fragrance, quite fresh and pleasant. The scent on the burn of the black stick is a little bolder and sweeter, and with a distinct fruit note. I keep looking for the similarity in fragrance, and it is possible there is one, but is altered by the production methods. But what I am perceiving is two very different scents. The scent on the black scent is moderately pleasant - sweet, some what bright and fruity, with floral notes which the more the stick burns the more for me it inclines toward rose, but the overall experience is entwinned with soft grey smoke tones. The brown stick is clearer and purer, with a pleasant, albeit vague and kind of generic masala, fragrance. As it burns I become more aware of the sweetness, and some of the sandalwood notes drift away. There are some soft fruit tones, and the top notes are sweet floral, inclining toward rose.
Ho hum. The scents are very different, though they contain similar elements. It is not impossible that they both have been dipped in the same perfume solution, but that the brown stick has some frankincense in the paste, and some sandalwood in the masala powder, and so the scent profile is altered and improved. Either that, or one or other of the sticks is not Prabhupada, and either Brief Chemistry or myself has been sent a substitute. Perhaps deliberately, or perhaps by accident. Either way, the brown stick is the better experience of the two. It's a decent stick.
Date: Aug 2025 Score: 33
The scent on the brown stick is woody and floral, though also with some vague chemical/rubber notes. The fragrance on the black stick is sweet, somewhat volatile and chemical, with a floral note that inclines toward violets on this visit (previously I felt it was rose - and, yes, I can see that again now). The fragrance on the sticks is distinctly different. The difference in appearance could be down to different production methods, but the scent on the stick is not similar.
When lighting up the brown stick, the flame is small, with faint grey smoke. The black stick had a slightly larger flame, and produced a significant though not huge amount of black smoke. Both sticks use charcoal as the combustible, so the black smoke will likely be coming from a chemical additive, such as DEP.
The scent on the burn of the brown stick is soft, woody, fruity, floral. It's a gentle, laid back fragrance, quite fresh and pleasant. The scent on the burn of the black stick is a little bolder and sweeter, and with a distinct fruit note. I keep looking for the similarity in fragrance, and it is possible there is one, but is altered by the production methods. But what I am perceiving is two very different scents. The scent on the black scent is moderately pleasant - sweet, some what bright and fruity, with floral notes which the more the stick burns the more for me it inclines toward rose, but the overall experience is entwinned with soft grey smoke tones. The brown stick is clearer and purer, with a pleasant, albeit vague and kind of generic masala, fragrance. As it burns I become more aware of the sweetness, and some of the sandalwood notes drift away. There are some soft fruit tones, and the top notes are sweet floral, inclining toward rose.
Ho hum. The scents are very different, though they contain similar elements. It is not impossible that they both have been dipped in the same perfume solution, but that the brown stick has some frankincense in the paste, and some sandalwood in the masala powder, and so the scent profile is altered and improved. Either that, or one or other of the sticks is not Prabhupada, and either Brief Chemistry or myself has been sent a substitute. Perhaps deliberately, or perhaps by accident. Either way, the brown stick is the better experience of the two. It's a decent stick.
Date: Aug 2025 Score: 33
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| First review |
This is part of a bundle of incense I bought from Vrindavan Bazaar last year. £1 for 20gms. Cheap as chips, though dubious quality. Named after the founder of the International Krishna Movement, Swami Prabhupada, this is a machine-extruded perfume-dipped incense. Not quite as delightful as the old Spiritual Sky that followers of Prabhupada's Krishna Movement used to sell, but, hey, it only cost £1 for 20gms. And, after all, you get what you pay for.... ;-)
Aroma on the stick is chemical toilet cleaner with some synthetic rose scent thrown in to make it less offensive. Scent on the burn is vague, smoky, with some drift toward rose, but is largely just generally sweet and floral. It's not great, but it's not appalling, and - good grief - it's only £1 for 20gms. What can you expect for that? After all, you get what you pay for...
I can't say I dislike this. Regardless of price, this is a lower end but reasonably acceptable everyday perfumed-charcoal room-freshener incense. And, actually, it's OK for the price. After all, you get what you pay for...
Aroma on the stick is chemical toilet cleaner with some synthetic rose scent thrown in to make it less offensive. Scent on the burn is vague, smoky, with some drift toward rose, but is largely just generally sweet and floral. It's not great, but it's not appalling, and - good grief - it's only £1 for 20gms. What can you expect for that? After all, you get what you pay for...
I can't say I dislike this. Regardless of price, this is a lower end but reasonably acceptable everyday perfumed-charcoal room-freshener incense. And, actually, it's OK for the price. After all, you get what you pay for...
Date: May 2025 Score: 24
***
This is interesting as I have just received a selection from VB.. I bought their Prahupada and this is not the stick they sent me, Mine is a light coloured masala, similar to a vrindavan flower scent. I also ordered the Mayapur (which i noticed you've reviewed) and like here, I received a very generic charcoal dipped stick. In fact, as i look in this package closer, it seems pretty random right the way thru, and some things they simply didnt send. I feel they've written labels to match my order on whatever they had lying around! Def a bit hit n miss with this trader. Some of it seems ok!
ReplyDeleteI've bought from them at least twice. I found, especially the first time, that they sent way more than I ordered - so there'd be various packets I hadn't ordered or paid for. Possibly some scents missing, though I didn't check for that. Yes, quite random. Same as the quality. Quite random. But the price is stunningly low, and there's some tasty incense in the bundles, so I'm quite happy to keep using them. I think they source from various makers in and around Vrindavan. My speculation is that individual households will focus on just one or a handful of scents, rather than certain scents being made by different households. But it may also be the case that the shops, such as VB, buy from dealers who have their own collection of makers, and the dealers will want to compete, so there may be three or four dealers in Vrindavan who have their own harem of households making the incense, so there may be three or four versions of each scent. But it's all speculation. And in my experience its sometimes hard to get the truth out of the Indian incense industry because there is a tendency to sell themselves by telling you want they think you want to hear, and to avoid telling you stuff which may cause you to go elsewhere. "Do you make this incense yourself?" "Oh yes indeed sir. All hand made by me. All natural ingredients. No child labour sir."
DeleteI had exactly the same experience! How bizarre... (or Bazaar...)...! I also ordered the Prabhupada ('Natural and Pure Temple Grade Incense') and received the charcoal dipped. Is it the description or the tasty looking masala sticks in the photo that make it attractive? I also assumed, since the shop was based in Vrindavan, the centre of Vaishnavite devotion, that they would make an effort for an incense named after the founder of ISKON but, no, this reasoning wasn't reflected in the goods received. The order in general was the same hit-and-miss assemblage you both describe.
ReplyDeleteEven more bizarre, is that Brief Chemistry has got in touch to show me some Oud he got from VB which appears to be exactly the same as Oud he got from Pushkar, and which he suspects is the same as the Oud he got from Sai Handicrafts. He's sending me samples of each.
DeleteFrom looking at the photo, the Vrindavan oud is packaged exactly the same as the Pushkar oud, and the sticks look the same, so they do appear to have been made and packaged by the same person/team. The distance between the two towns is around 6 hours by road. My speculation is that the man who organises incense production in Pushkar had some excess supply of oud, and so had it taken to Vrindavan to sell to VB.
Buying from VB appears to be a lottery, but not always a disappointing one. Best not to rely on the photos . . . or the descriptions . . a bit of a cavalier attitude all round really but only stressful if you expect otherwise :-)
ReplyDeleteI entirely agree. I have enjoyed much of what I have bought from VB, and been charmed by the extras they include, and it's all so low priced that there's no risk anyway. Scent is so particularly personal that I am reluctant to pay more than £10 for a single pack of incense that I may not enjoy, especially when I can get 10 or 20 packets for the same price and mostly the same quality. There's 10 or 20 times more chance I'll find scents I like if I'm buying 10 or 20 different scents.
DeleteOften it's not scents we are paying for - often we are paying for marketing, promotion, and image. And I'll put my hands up and admit that blogs like mine are part of the image making. I have increasingly of late been underlining that just because I like ( or dislike) an incense, doesn't mean that others will. Mileage may vary.
Thanks. Actually, with the oudh, you made an interesting point about how incense sellers may operate in India which I didn't address. Your speculation about how incense dealers distribute their stock added to my knowledge base (ignorance base, actually :-) about how it works on the ground outside of the established companies with bricks and mortar places.
DeleteAlso, the bigger issue of the (mostly) women who make the dhoop and agarbatti with recipes and materials supplied to them by , presumably, these merchants. I'd like to find out more about this. I've seen videos of the larger factories (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya for example) where employees put in 8 hour or longer shifts and the work looks pretty soul destroying even though the conditions are very reasonable.
If you put "Indian woman rolling incense", or just "woman rolling incense", into YouTube you will get several videos of women rolling incense in their homes.
DeleteSometimes you'll see children rolling incense (despite what manufacturers say, this is very common - the children come home from school and help out with family chores, it's not seen as child labour, but as helping out the family).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTzYR8lwzyg
Thanks. From what I've seen, women rolling incense in their own homes looks preferable to the grim production lines in large/medium factories but that is very much a subjective impression - it's something I'd like to learn more about in the coming year.
ReplyDeleteSwings and roundabouts. Some of the better factories offer benefits - education for the children, pensions, sick care, etc. Also, companionship with other workers.
DeleteWorking from home would be more flexible, and fit in better with child care, but offers no protection, and the women would be working longer hours than those in the factories.