 |
| Second review - scroll down for earlier |
The agarwood used in everyday Chinese incense is mainly from young trees on cultivated farms in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Vietnam, where the trees are deliberately wounded, rather than allowed to develop the scented resin naturally. My understanding is that the resin scent from these young cultivated trees is milder, cleaner, more herbal than the more prized aged resin which is sweet and complex. Blending also occurs. Agarwood (which could be from cultivated or naturally aged trees) is powdered and blended with other woods, such as sandalwood, and sometimes with herbs. If the incense or agarwood simply says agarwood (沉香) then it will be everyday agarwood. The more detail and information given, the more likely it will go up in price and reputation. A location, such as Hainan (海南) or Vietnam (越南), is a possible indicator of higher quality. Terms such as wild (野生) and old stock (老料), will increase the possibility of quality. Terms such as heavy (重油) and water sinking (沉水), are strongly associated with top quality incense. All that said, I have everyday Temu agarwood incense with those terms. However, the more of those terms which are used, the more likely the incense is genuinely high quality. I have no doubt that the agarwood incense that Temu sells is everyday cultivated agarwood and/or blended with cheaper woods.
This Jiang Zhen (which appears to translate as True River, or something close to that) Agarwood has a gently savoury backbone like a herbal veg dish, with sweet and floral higher notes to flesh it out. It's pleasant. Limited and everyday, but nevertheless pleasant. Where it goes wrong for me is that during the burn a scorched wood scent emerges and then dominates.
Date: Jan 2026 Score: 25
 |
| First Review |
"Genuine Agarwood Powder" says my Google translation. Not sure what difference there is between this Jiang Zhen Agarwood and the Yongchun County Hainan Agarwood. I doubt if either has quality agarwood powder - they are likely to have the wood which doesn't have much or any fragrant oil. So be it.
 |
| The five tubes of Small Auspicious Clouds |
There is a mild but pleasant woody aroma on the burn. To be fair, it's actually quite nice. I started this set of Tongchun County incense with the rather rough Goose Pear, and that unconsciously flicked my attitude regarding the set to a "glass half empty" setting, but as I've been proceeding through them I have found them to be a notch better than I had been led to expect by that first one. This is not great incense, but to be fair, it's not bad for the price. Not really my thing - I'm not an enthusiast for mild scents, nor for wood powder as the combustible, nor for rather simple, basic scents; but these are Ok little room brighteners for not much money.
Available on Temu for around £5 for a pack of five different fragrances.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment: