Blue Pearl Majmua

 

The seventh stick from the 10 stick Blue Pearl "Classic Champa" sampler which has three Champa styles, plus 7 other fragrances ranging from Amber to Silver Lotus, is Majmua, which is described as "Like Freshly Cut Hay". Majmua is an Arabian word meaning "gathering", and is used in perfume to describe a blend or "gathering" of woody, floral, earthy, and musky fragrances. While the word is Arab, the perfume origin is Indian, so while an attar is more likely to be made by a Muslim Indian, the scent is also used by Hindu incense makers as part of general Indian culture.   

The stick is neatly machine-extruded from charcoal paste which presents as being perfume-dipped - there is some volatility on the stick, though that is not noticed in the burn. As with the bulk of Blue Pearl incenses there is a vanilla and musk/patchouli base. That is joined in Majmua with some fruit and floral top notes. It's a pleasant and engaging fragrance, if a little random and un-designed.  There is no indication that a perfumer has assembled this with thought and skill - it feels like some oils have just been poured into the blend to create something that would smell nice. There is no sense of design - of building the accord and balancing it. 

The scent on the burn is nice. I moan and chunter about the way this is casually thrown together, and how superficial it is, but at the end of the burn there is an attractive fragrance in the home. It's OK stuff. Vanilla, violets, lotus, fruits, some musky sweet patchouli and sandalwood in the base for support and contrast. It's decent. Yeah. Not great. But, yeah, decent. And likeable. 

The Classic Champa Sampler & More is available from Vitamin Grocer for £3.95; and Healing Waters for $2.99. 

Date: Feb 2026   Score: 33  

***

Blue Pearl

Note: It is not known who makes the incense for Blue Pearl; however, some of the incenses are similar to those made by HMS of Pune.

Blue Pearl "Premium" Silver Lotus

 

The sixth stick from the 10 stick Blue Pearl "Classic Champa" sampler which has three Champa styles, plus 7 other fragrances ranging from Amber to Silver Lotus, is the Silver Lotus, and the description is: "A Sweet Heavenly Blossom".  Most lotus incenses use a synthetic fragrance, though some may use oil blends made from benzoin, sandalwood, and jasmine. This has scents on the stick resembling benzoin, sandalwood, and jasmine, along with rubber, and a puff of cool volatility.  It is more vanilla than it is lotus. I'm liking these Blue Pearl incense because the use of vanilla and sandalwood with a light hint of musk or patchouli gives them an instant and easy appeal combined with a gentle touch of wood and warm, comforting sex appeal. However, when burning them in a series, the vanilla starts to become a little sickly and cloying. I'll be giving the Blue Pearl a little rest after this Silver Lotus as I am somewhat over-satiated with vanilla. 

The stick is machine-extruded charcoal, and - given the volatility of the scent on the stick - presents as being perfume-dipped. There are pros-and-cons with perfume-dipped, same as there are pro-and-cons with masala incense, and with wood paste incense. One of the drawbacks of perfume-dipped is that there may be a sharp, cold volatility on the stick; though that volatility tends to vanish on the burn. A perfume-dipped may have crisper, cleaner, more varied notes than a stick with embedded fragrance; but the pay off is that the softer, more rounded and subtle notes of embedded fragrance incense tend not to be there. Some incense makers use a blend of both embedded fragrances and surface oils in order to get some of the benefits of both. 

Anyway, there is volatility on the stick which is not there on the burn. The burn is quite soft and attractive. Yes, there is some waxy floral notes here, but I am somewhat locked into awareness of the vanilla, so that is what is grabbing me. However, the vanilla is not as heavy here as it has been on some other Blue Pearl sticks, and serves mainly to both support and ground the delicate, waxy floral notes. My main issue is that there is a general smokiness about the stick which doesn't sit well with the general ambiance of delicate florals and soft vanilla. But, all in all, a pleasant and attractive soft and warm and delicate room freshener. Yes, I like this. 

The Classic Champa Sampler & More is available from Vitamin Grocer for £3.95; and Healing Waters for $2.99. 

Date: Feb 2026   Score: 30  

***

Lotus

Blue Pearl

Note: It is not known who makes the incense for Blue Pearl; however, some of the incenses are similar to those made by HMS of Pune.

Blue Pearl Sandalwood Blossom

 

The fifth stick from the 10 stick Blue Pearl "Classic Champa" sampler which has three Champa styles, plus 7 other fragrances ranging from Amber to Silver Lotus, is Sandalwood Blossom which is described as "Vanilla with Our Best Sandalwood". This sandalwood stick, unlike the other Sandalwood in the set, is hand rolled. I don't have a distinct preference one way or the other between hand-rolled and extruded. Extruded is the older  technique - hand-rolling around a bamboo splint was developed in Mysore around 1900 as a quick and easy way to make incense sticks, with the added advantage that the bamboo splint made the sticks more robust and easy to package and transport as well as easier to use. I find that machine extruded bamboo core sticks burn more evenly with a more consistent fragrance flow, and the ash is more compressed and neater. A number of traditional Indian incense makers say that machine extruding compresses the paste such that the fragrance doesn't breathe properly. I suspect that is because they haven't adjusted their hand-rolling paste formulation properly. 

The scent on the stick of this Sandalwood Blossom is mild woody sandalwood with a wrapping of sweet vanilla, and a faint touch of icy volatility along with some damp wool. There is a trend developing here in that a number of these Blue Pearl sticks are sandalwood and vanilla prominent, and that - other than the heady and flora style Golden Champa - the fragrances are quite soft and welcoming and commercial, though with a naughty edge that lifts them above the ordinary everyday incense. 

The scent on the burn follows the general pattern of most Blue Pearl in that it is a gentle and attractive fragrance with little in the way of off-notes, and it is somewhat vanilla and sandalwood dominant, which gives it an easy yet modestly interesting appeal. There is some twigginess in the accord, which gives it a curious lift. Overall, slightly more interesting and compelling than the straight Sandalwood. 

The Classic Champa Sampler & More is available from Vitamin Grocer for £3.95; and Healing Waters for $2.99. 

Date: Feb 2026   Score: 30  

***

Sandalwood

Blue Pearl

Note: It is not known who makes the incense for Blue Pearl; however, some of the incenses are similar to those made by HMS of Pune.

Blue Pearl Amber

 

This is the third stick from the 10 stick Blue Pearl "Classic Champa" sampler which has three Champa styles, plus 7 other fragrances ranging from Amber to Silver Lotus, is the Amber, which is described as "Resinous, Balsamic, and Deep". There is a degree of uncertainty regarding amber; such that it is often described as a fantasy or constructed scent, based on the notion of what fossilised amber resin would smell like when burned. Common ingredients in Indian incense would be benzoin and frankincense or myrrh.

The scent on the stick of this Blue Pearl Amber has a sickly, sticky vanilla quality, which would likely come from benzoin, along with darker, warmer, woody, musky notes that are quite sexy and exciting. There's some warm wool, which I tend to associate with halmaddi, though could be something else. And there's chocolate, and resin, and sex (the physical smell of fresh sexual excitement). All in all it's an attractive and compelling scent. An intriguing and beguiling blend of the naughty and the nice. 

The scent on the burn is gentle and polite: not quite the wild journey suggested by the scent on the stick. It is actually quite beautifully balanced, integrating the vanilla with the woody, musky, patchouli elements in a warm and attractive and comforting manner. It is quite a yummy gourmand fragrance, propelled by the vanilla elements. It is the use of vanilla in Blue Pearl's scents that puts some people in mind of HMS,  though other incense houses in Pune, such as VNS, also use vanilla. 

I like the Blue Pearl Amber. 

The Classic Champa Sampler & More is available from Vitamin Grocer for £3.95; and Healing Waters for $2.99. 

Date: Feb 2026    Score: 38 

***

Blue Pearl

Amber

Note: It is not known who makes the incense for Blue Pearl; however, some of the incenses are similar to those made by HMS of Pune.

Blue Pearl Musk Champa

 

The second stick from the 10 stick Blue Pearl "Classic Champa" sampler which has three Champa styles, plus 7 other fragrances ranging from Amber to Silver Lotus, is Musk Champa, which is described as "Botanical Musk with Classic Champa".  Interesting. The suggestion is that the musk content would be likely based on a plant, such as labdanum, angelica archangelica, or musk mallow; though, if the most common musk synthetic like Galaxolide is not being used, and it is botanicals, then a blend of benzoin and patchouli oil is the most likely for an Indian incense creating a musk scent. And that does appear to be the fragrance on the stick. A blend of vanilla, minty patchouli, and McVities digestive biscuit. 

I wonder if, from the description, this is the Classic Champa blended with patchouli and benzoin. That would be cool, as I loved the Classic Champa, and I love patchouli and benzoin. So this should really be my bag. And I'm loving the scent on the stick. There is a sweet gourmand aroma tickled with the minty patchouli. It's not really musky as such - indeed, the fragrance elements are mostly quite light, floating, top notes - delicate florals, sparkling, crispy vanilla, and some icy citrus - like lemon sorbet. Ooh, this is nice. 

I love the scent on the burn. However... Let's park the name, and any expectations arising from the name; as it's not uncommon for incense not to smell like the name, and I have long accepted that. So that's not a real issue for me (though it might be for others).  However, this is quite a vanilla dominant scent. There's some botanicals, and some wood in the burn that I didn't notice on the stick, and these do ground the accord a bit. But the vanilla is all over the incense like locusts having a picnic. Does it bother me? Hmmm. No. But this is not the incense I was hoping it would be. I suppose the description, the name, and my own imagination and prior experience had led me up the garden path to a wood shed that didn't contain the treasure I was hoping for. And I have to deal with that. Because. There are joys here. And plenty of them. Florals, vanilla, honey, woods, swirling together in a brilliant yummy haze. Oooh. Yes, I love this. I do.

The Classic Champa Sampler & More is available from Vitamin Grocer for £3.95; and Healing Waters for $2.99. 

Date: Feb 2026    Score: 45 

***

Blue Pearl

Musk

Best of Champa

Note: It is not known who makes the incense for Blue Pearl; however, some of the incenses are similar to those made by HMS of Pune. 

Blue Pearl "Premium" Golden Champa

  

I have two packets of Blue Pearl Classic Champa Sampler & More, which I've possibly had since approx 2023. The packets contain 10 sticks, each with a different fragrance - one of which is the "Premium" Golden Champa, described as "Champa with a dolce honey flourish". Not quite sure what is meant by "dolce honey" - suggestions on a postcard please. Possibilities include a soft, sweet honey, or honey blended with fruit.  Champa generally indicates an incense with a floral aroma, usually based on plumeria/frangipani - a waxy, fragrant flower with a sort of creamy jasmine or gardenia scent touched with fruit or citrus. 

The sticks are quite thick and firm, and are coated with a brown powder. The impression is that of a flora style incense - based on Sri Sai Flora Fluxo. The scent on the stick is quietly heady, fresh, open, and oily, with sandalwood and spicy florals. It's an engaging scent. Very attractive.  The burn is very heady and smoky, and not suitable for burning indoors with the windows closed, unless you love to be totally enveloped in a pungent incense. The experience is similar to that of Sai Flora - quite rich with oils, and with a dry balsamic approach. Herby, smoky, and woody, with a muted vinegary sharpness, and a subdued sweetness.  There is a floral note on top - a dry, waxy jasmine. And there's the warm wool scent I associate with halmaddi. It's an experience typical of incenses based on Sai Flora. 

I like flora style incenses; though over time I have experienced many different floras, as well as other styles of incense, and my enthusiasm for exploring new variations has waned slightly -  partly through over-familiarity with the style, and partly through an awareness of other, more interesting, incense styles. While enjoying this Golden Champa I find it's not lifting or exciting me. It's not doing anything that a dozen other flora style incenses have not already done, and many have done better. Nothing against this incense, it's a good example of a flora, and I might have been more excited if I'd had this early on in my quest around the world's incense; but as I find myself making healthy progress in exploring Asian incenses, particularly those from China and Japan, I'm finding myself leaning more toward quieter incenses. Or, at least, incenses that are a little calmer and quieter than big, bold, earthy, and terpene-rich floras. 

The Classic Champa Sampler & More is available from Vitamin Grocer for £3.95; and Healing Waters for $2.99. 

Date: Feb 2026    Score: 45 

***

Blue Pearl

Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme

Best of Champa

Note: It is not known who makes the incense for Blue Pearl; however, some of the incenses are similar to those made by HMS of Pune. 

The Laughing Buddhaa Celestial Fragrance

 

All of the three Laughing Buddhaa incenses I've burned have been decent quality. They are well made sticks with good scents. But they have also been rather unremarkable. Perhaps there are better sticks in the range, but I feel I have had a fair sample with a pure frankincense, a standard Nag Champa, and now this perfumed blend. The scent on the stick is sweet and flowery and delicate and perfumed. It is an attractive scent with no unpleasant off-notes. Quite powdery and soapy with a general aura of a quality fabric conditioner. 

The scent on the burn moves away from the perfume elements on the stick, and presents more as a dry, twiggy masala incense. There are woody, resinous scents - quite warm and pleasant, though also rather ordinary. I like the scent, but it is so familiar and everyday, albeit decent quality, that it doesn't really lift or excite me. And I'm not really a big fan of twiggy incense, especially when it remains largely in the same area. Given time some of the perfumed cold throw fragrance starts to emerge from the dry wood notes - or, rather, emerge within the dry wood notes so both exist at the same time in an uncomfortable fixed marriage without love or joy.  There are frankincense notes here, with a faint hint of benzoin, and an even fainter herby floral like lavender or sage.  

Yeah, overall a decent incense: well made with decent ingredients, and an enjoyable scent. Not too heavy. Good as a decent room fragrance, or even as a meditation aid. Yeah. Nice. The most enjoyable, for me, of the three Laughing Buddhaa incenses I've tried. And the one that totters me on the edge of exploring this range further. 

Date: Feb 2026    Score: 37

***

The Laughing Buddhaa

The Laughing Buddhaa

 

The Laughing Buddhaa is a shop in Dubai that presents as a "high-end" New Age shop that sells healing crystals and incense. Their own brand incense appears to be made in Mumbai (the packs are marked: Dubai - Mumbai). There are a number of white label incense houses in and around Mumbai, such as Melting Moments, Suchatas, Kamicka, and the massive Singapuraship. However, the style and quality of the incense suggests that the makers may be Incense Collective, who are located just outside Mumbai, and are the brand owners of Nitiraj. 

The pack design is the same for all the fragrances - all that is different is the name and the decoration colouring. This is the most common approach used by own brand traders, as it is low cost, low effort and commitment, and advertises the trader's own brand. The design and colours are simple and unimaginative but quite pleasing. 

The scents range from the traditional, such as Frankincense, which present as clean and natural and simple; through the standard established scents such as Nag Champa, which present as decent quality, and on a par with others of that ilk; to their own scents such as Celestial Fragrance, which are quite sweet, floral, and perfumed. So there is something in the range for everyone.  

The incense is available in the UK from The Incense Man at £5.99 for a pack of 20 sticks at approx 1g per stick, which is the average weight of an Indian joss stick. The Laughing Buddhaa in Dubai sell packs for 40 UAD each (approx £8), though the size is not given; only a few of the scents have the same name as those sold by The Incense Man. 

I find them likeable and decent quality. The UK price of approx £6 for 20g is acceptable given the retail chain, and the quality. Incense bought direct from source is always going to be cheaper; and the bigger incense makers such as Cycle and Satya, will always be competitive on price due to the economies of scale; so some allowance needs to be made for lesser known brands, especially when sold from Western traders. All that said,  I felt the price to be a little higher than the quality and presentation warranted. This is an incense I am happy to have and burn; however, I found them a little safe and familiar. Overall I enjoyed them a lot, though found that the range, coupled with Laughing Buddhaa being a Western brand rather than an authentic original, lacked the character, emotional connection, and/or aesthetic interest to really excite me. I'm borderline on if I want to explore the range further. 

Reviews

The Laughing Buddhaa
Celestial Fragrance (M)
Feb 2026 - Score: 37

  

The Laughing Buddhaa
Pure Frankincense (M)
Jan 2026 - Score: 36

  

The Laughing Buddhaa
Nagchampa (M)
Feb 2026 - Score: 35

Reviews: 3

Top score: 37
Low score: 35
Average: 36

***

Own brand / Trader

The Laughing Buddhaa Nagchampa

 

Classic, soft, creamy Nag Champa aroma on the stick. A big, warm, woolly jumper with delicate, sparkly floral notes and some yummy white chocolate. Very commercial, and I can see people really getting into this. I suspect these sticks are made by Incense Collective (previously called  Fair Trade), who do decent white label incense as well as their own Nitiraj brand. 

Has a decent Nag Champa scent on the burn with a suggestion of halmaddi. I like this, though to be fair it's not doing anything much different to any other decent Nag Champa, such as Om Nag Champa, which is made by Incense Collective and sold by The Incense Man at £1.74 for 12 sticks. 

Available in the UK from The Incense Man at £5.99 for a pack of 20 sticks at approx 1g per stick, which is the average weight of an Indian joss stick. The Laughing Buddhaa in Dubai sell packs for 40 UAD each (approx £8), though the size is not given, and only a few of the scents are the same as The Incense Man has. 

Date: Feb 2026    Score: 35 

***

Nag Champa

The Laughing Buddhaa

The Laughing Buddhaa Pure Frankincense

On a whim, I bought a few packs of Laughing Buddhaa incense from The Incense Man while I was on that site buying Padmini Pakeezah, which I'm informed is the source for the excellent Stamford Pakeezah. The price - £5.99 for 20 sticks - is not cheap, but I was curious. I'm now looking around for information, but I'm not finding much about them on the internet. They don't give an address on the packet, nor on their website, just the words "Dubai - Mumbai". I did a Google maps search for Laughing Buddhaa in Dubai, and I can see there is a shop in Dubai with the same name, and the same logo. It seems to be a "high-end" New Age shop that sells healing crystals and incense. It appears to me that the incense isn't made in Dubai, so I search for a Laughing Buddhaa in Mumbai. There are several Laughing Buddha with one "a", but nothing spelled with two "a"s. So my assumption is that the incense is made by one of the many white label incense houses in Mumbai, such as Melting Moments, Suchatas, Kamicka, and the massive Singapuraship, who work with Satya and Phool, and can make over 13 million sticks a day. I emailed to the address on the pack, but that bounced back as address unknown. So I used the "contact us" form on the shop's website, and asked if they could provide me with more details about the company and the incense they sell. After a month there is still no response. So, yeah, this is highly likely to be run-of-the-mill white label Mumbai incense sold for a high price in Dubai, and for some reason then imported by The Incense Man. 

The pack design is the same for all the fragrances - all that is different is the name and the decoration colouring. This is the most common approach used by own brand traders, as it is low cost, low effort and commitment, and pushes the trader's own brand. The design and colours are simple and unimaginative.

The sticks are quite plain. Some light brown wood paste has been hand rolled onto plain bamboo splints. There is a very mild soapy scent on the sticks, with some very faint wood and resin notes; there's an attractive delicate sherbet sweetness, some mint, and a curious sense of fresh air. So far there is little here that is encouraging, though the low level of scent on the sticks does suggest that this is proper masala, where the fragrance is put into the paste before rolling, rather than added afterwards. Proper traditional masala tends to be designed more for the burn fragrance rather than the fleeting charm of the fragrance on the stick. 

Once lit up there is a distinct and pure frankincense fragrance, combined with white sandalwood, and later some twigginess. It is an attractive woody and resinous scent, though doesn't travel far from its white woody resin heart. There's perhaps some pepper and a touch of nettles, but on the whole it treads water. It's a nice spot to be in; though after treading water in the same spot it kind of stirs up some mud, and the earlier cool and pleasant clarity starts to shift to something a little murky - a little bit of burning wood. 

Despite my hesitation about the background to this incense, I find I like it. There's a blend of  white wood (partly fragrantly sweet sandalwood, though also partly ill-defined garden bonfire wood) with plain frankincense. It mostly works well. I find that the fragrance remains in the same area too much for my liking, with insufficient variety for my easily bored mind. But I can see how others would like that focus. I'm uncomfortable with some of the scratchy burn notes, but that could be partly to do with my terpenes sensitivity which has been playing up for about a month now.  On the whole I find this a decent incense, which I suspect I would enjoy more with some summer breezes coming in through the open windows. 

Date: Jan 2026    Score: 36

***

Frankincense

The Laughing Buddhaa

Vijayshree "Golden Nag" Meditation cones

 

I reviewed "Golden Nag" Meditation in stick form last January (2025). I've had something of a journey with the "Golden Nag" brand. At first I really liked it, then I really disliked it. I think now I'm in more of a middling spot. "Golden Nag" incenses tend to be quite heady on the "cold throw" - quite oily and prominent. Put a stick or cone on the table, and you don't need to light it, the scent will arise and disperse somewhat. Not a huge distance, but certainly within several feet it is quite noticeable. The cold scents have an immediate appeal  (this Meditation has a pleasant oily resin scent); though they also tend to have sharp edges, as this Meditation does. I suspect that the sharp edge is personal to  me, and is to do with my terpene sensitivity. 

This is quite heady on the burn - a little too heady for me in the same room, so I move it to the next room. The scent on the burn is an echo of the scent on the cone - oily, rich, resinous, musky, with some sharp nips which is likely due to my terpene sensitivity.  I find it a little overbearing, and too compressed in the same fragrance area so there are few contrasts and little relief from the main drive of the musky resin note.  Sachin Jain of Vijayshree has assured me that their incense is "100% natural and non-toxic", which is reassuring. However, the impact of the incense on me feels more chemical and toxic than a natural and non-toxic walk through a forest. It feels like the cone has been soaked in a lot of oils, rather like a Flora incense, and the intensity of the oils is just a bit too in the face for me - a bit too like inhaling hot petrol fumes. I feel I should put the Golden Nag incenses away. At least until the summer, perhaps. But if bold, heady, terpene-rich incense is your bag, then this will suit you fine. 

Date: Jan 2026    Score: 28

***

Vijayshree Fragrance

Goose Pear Tent Incense

   

Goose Pear (or Goose Pear Tent as it is more formally known) is a famous ancient Chinese incense. There are several versions as to its origin. The first version I became aware of, involved "the deep affection that Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang Dynasty, had for Xiao Zhouhou". Li Yu was a largely ineffectual ruler, though a respected poet; Xiao Zhouhou was the 14 year old sister of Yu's wife, Zhou Ehuang. Li Yu supposedly made the special incense, which was a blend of steamed pear and agarwood that had been buried for a period of time, and burned it in his garden in order to seduce the young woman to come to him in the moonlight. It's a compelling and romantic story, though the details of the love affair appear to be dubious - we know Li Yu did marry his wife's younger sister after his wife died, and that he was a poet, though there is only speculation that he was having an affair with the 14 year old while his wife was dying. And these stories originated long after the events supposedly took place, so are not based on court documents or eye witness reports. The main evidence appears to come from some of Li Yu's poetry -  an article by Ding Fang in the Journal of Chinese Humanities is one example. Ding Fang says of this (rather beautiful) poem,

Moonlight veiled, flowers glow in the misty night,
This eve I’ll seek my love’s embrace so bright.
Silk-stockinged feet on scented stairs,
Gold-threaded shoes in hand I bear.
By the painted hall’s south side we meet,
I tremble as our bodies greet.
Though sneaking out brings fear and thrill,
Let passion reign, and have its will.

that it is "Li Yu’s depiction of his clandestine rendezvous with the younger Empress Zhou". Well, no doubt it is a poem about a secret liaison, but I'm less certain about who is involved.  Here is another translation, in which the viewpoint is shown to be from the woman's aspect (and that is true of other translations I have read). He may have been writing about an imaginary (though desired) liaison, or it may have been an actual liaison, but it could have been with another person, including a memory of meeting with his wife when they were younger. It's poor proof that he was having an affair with his wife's sister.   

The incense is also known as Emperor Li's Sleeping Incense - referencing the same Li Yu, and using a mix of agarwood, sandalwood, and pear, and steaming them together. The idea is that the scent of the incense aids sleep.

The Korean scholar Seo-Yu-gu (1764–1845) in his Encyclopedia Koreana on Rural Living gives a recipe for "Lord Li's pear incense", which is the earliest date I've yet found to mention this incense. And it is noteworthy that in the 19th century it was not called Goose Pear (Tent), but it is linked to Li Yu. The recipe is roughly translated as "Finely chop 38 grams of agarwood. Add juice made out of 10 Ya pears to make into a paste.  Put the paste inside a silver bowl and steam cook it three times. When the paste is completely dried, it may be burned."

The Ya pear ( 白梨) , also known as the Chinese white pear, is often translated as "duck pear"; reasons given vary from the shape of the fruit resembling a duck, to Ya meaning duck in Mandarin. The name "goose pear" appears to be a variant translation, or a hybrid version of the pear, depending on source.   

The "tent" aspect of the name is given in some sources as "pear sweetness wrapped in warm incense smoke", while in others it suggests that this was incense to be burned indoors with curtains over the windows to contain the fragrance.  That source says that the incense was made by Li Yu and his wife. Another source says that it was his wife who made the incense, and returns again to the idea that the incense was developed to aid sleeping, which appears to have been a common use for incense during the Tang Dynasty.  Special rooms for burning incense was made popular during the Song Dynasty which replaced the Tang Dynasty, and it may be an interpretation by Song writers that Li Yu and Zhou Ehuang burned the incense in a "tent". 

There is evidence of incense use in China dating back to the Shang Dynasty, though the Han Dynasty is generally regarded as the start of regular and purposeful incense use, which was further developed  during the Tang Dynasty through the import of incense along the Silk Road; and it is this period when agarwood became most highly prized. 

The quick summary is that Goose Pear Tent incense was likely developed just over a thousand years ago during the Tang Dynasty in the court of Li Yu and his wife, and either or both may have been involved in its creation. That it was created to aid relaxation and sleep, and that it involved steaming Chinese white pear with agarwood, and sometimes also sandalwood. The resulting paste was dried before burning, and some recipes suggest burying for varying periods, though this is perhaps a mistranslation of burying the agarwood inside the pear.  The name appears to originally have been some variation on Li's incense or Li's sleeping incense, then later it became known as Goose Pear Tent incense through the use of the Chinese white pear which is sometimes translated as goose pear, and a possible use of the incense in a room with silk curtains (a tent) or that the delicate pear aromas are enveloped in a "tent" of agarwood smoke. 

Reviews

PW = Perfumed wood

Temu Small Auspicious Clouds Goose Pear (PW)
Mar 2025 - Score: 37

   

Xiang Lian Eli Zhang Zhong Xiang
(Goose Pear) (PW)
Mar 2025 - Score: 21

   

Temu Yongchun County
Small Auspicious Clouds Goose Pear (PW)
Jan 2026 - Score: 20↑

   

Reviews: 3

Top score: 37
Low score: 20
Average: 26

***

Good & bad Chinese incense

Different Scents