What's on your burner today?

YouNight: What a beautiful Cherry Blossom tree! I think it is going to be difficult finding a good stick that can replicate the smell of Cherry Blossom. Most of the ones I smelled were cloying and smelled like synthetic scents. Japanese Incense companies do use synthetics but at least theyt ell you and they also tell you when it's all natural. All of the Premium Incense sticks are naturals and some are not even dipped in Oils. There are very few Indian Houses that Make all natural Incense such as Dhuni. I would have thought that on the other hand Tibetan would be more natural since most of them are blended according to Medicinal formulas. BTW YouNight, you can buy the Holy Land Powder and you don't have to crush the stick :) Like you I only mix single note Incense sticks like the Pure series from NK with Aloeswood based sticks. Ahmir, For every other day Incense burn I would whole heartily recommend White Chrysanthemm (Shiragiku Aleoswood). It is a great quality product for the Money but you can decide for yourself by figuering out first what kind of Aloeswood scent you like; spicy, sweet, green...etc. then try some within your desired prize range see http://olfactoryrescueservice.wordpress.com/?s=Shin+Tokusen+Reiryo+Koh
Has anyone tried any incense from Lisn in Japan? http://www2.lisn.co.jp/
 
masstika! first of all, how strange is this; in my post about layering, I mentioned a stick of incense that I burn while heating Palo Santo chips, but couldn't recall what it was, because the label is only in kanji... they're the Seijudo Shiragiku (White Chrysanthemum) sticks!!
Wow. What are the chances that you'd mention those? As soon as you wrote White Chrysanthemum, I knew they were the ones.

I totally agree that finding a high quality cherry blossom stick is going to be nearly impossible. I really wish that weren't the case.

Where can TMC Holy Land powder be found? I'd love to try some. As long as it smells (exactly) like the crushed sticks do, I'll be very happy.

AbuAyoob; My personal favorite Tibetan incense is Tibetan Medical College's "Holy Land".
I also really love Samye Monastery's powder. It's more gourmand, in its spices, than Holy Land, but beautiful and unique (though still clearly "Tibetan"). I bought some Samye sticks last year, and they're not as nice as the powder (which I bought in 2010). Not sure if they've changed their ingredients, like I've heard Highland did. I have some Highland power from a couple years ago. It's wonderful, but I can't recommend that you pick any up, because people are reporting that the new stock is a mere shadow of what the older stuff was.
Essence of the Ages has a good selection of Tibetan incence: http://www.essenceoftheages.com/
 
YouNight thanks for the info I am extremely interested in the holy land incense. I have a sai baba florals sticks that burn for about two hours and leave a pleasant after scent for days. The pack is red with gold writing on it, got it for 3 bucks. Essenceoftheages have a wide selection of goodies.
 
AbuAyoob; excellent. Be sure to report back after you've tried the Holy Land. Make sure (if you buy sticks and not the powder) to also crush them and heat the powder. There's a warm, fresh bready note in it that I love and can't get enough of. I smell it infinitely more when the smoke isn't there to obscure it.

And because I'm a geek, here's a photo that I snapped of my Holy Land glory:

 
YouNight: The Holy Land and Samye Monastery Incense powder that I have gotten them as present from a friend. I will ask them where they got it from. Tonight another interesting Mix: Scented mountain paired with NK Kayuragi Pomegranate Incense stick. The smell is very fruity and candy like. More of an approximation to the smell of Pomegranate. It is more of a light weight type of scent, not to be taken too seriously. Pretty sure it has synthetics but it is not bothersome or cloying. There is very little smoke comes out of it and when you put it side by side the scented Mountains stick looks like a 19 entury train chimmeny in comparison :) P1050696.jpg
Another light, floral scent I tried but less successfully is also NK Pink Plum Flower Incense - Yume-No-Yume. P1050695.jpg I say less successfully because it is quiet fragile and light that it gets bulldozed by the crudeness of the scented mountain. On it's own it is beautifully modern, white colored scent. It's very Japanese in how light and ethereal it is. It's compact but has a lot of scent in it without too much smoke. It's not for scenting rooms but rather for personal enjoyment. Those are light incense stick not to be tken too seriously and probably won't be liked by Aloeswood Aficionado.
 

Kruger

Well-Known Member
I'm back-tracking a bit, just to clarify something masstika brought up earlier. I've attached some pictures of wild Tripura chips we got from Simon at aluwwah, to demonstrate the holes found in all trees, wild or cultivated, and how the resin is often most concentrated around the holed areas.

Tripura_01.JPG Tripura_02.JPG Tripura_03.JPG Tripura_05.JPG Tripura_06.JPG
 
Thank you Thomas for helping me to visually be able to identify Oud properly. Can you help us by giving a little summery about other visual clues on how to identify good Oud, since a lot of us buy our oud On-line without the benefit of being able to sample smell prior to purchasing. Many people talk about all kinds of cheating and adulteration done to the wood from painting it with dark stains to pressure injections of synthetic oils and fragrant scents. I have seen many pieces of wood that I thought looked resinous and dark just to find out that they are merely visual sculptures of no value as fragrant wood and others that looked light and chunky that turned out to be sink grade???
 
I have also had the experience where the wood I received did not look like the wood in the picture on the site. I think the best rule of thumb is the rule we use in another of my interests - watch collecting. The saying goes: Buy the seller not the watch. I think this translates perfectly, buy the seller not the oud. If you have a seller you trust then the wood should be described accurately and I am always happy to pay a slight premium to be safe in the knowledge that I am getting honest product. Of course one cannot compare buying a watch which is a know entity to the mysteries of oud with its complex variety and qualities.
 
No sooner do I write about buying the seller than I immediately come across a seller I have never heard of - on Facebook. The FB page is "Fatima's Oud Oil* Attar* Wood* More*" and quite a variety of chip sources are offered there. Does anyone here have experience with this seller?
 
I came across this Tibetan Incense stick by Dolkar House called Aquilaria Agallocha-31 P1050727.jpg so I naturally thought that it must have some Aloeswood in it but I was mistaken. This must be from the non infected Aquilaria tree. The stick itself has absolutely no discernible fragrance. However, it devours other odors. I had fried fish that evening and unconsciously lite a stick, 20 minutes later and the smell has disappeared from the apartment. This stick burns slow and burns long time. We've talked here before about how certain Incense houses change their ingredients without announcement. A case in point I came across recently; a friend of mine sent me this sample stick of a Tibetan Incense that smelled so heavenly, a mix of Aloeswood, Sandalwood and some other spices. It was as if you've taken a lower grade Japanese Incense stick and make it thicker like Tibetan sticks so I ordered couple of bundles considering how inexpensive they are IMG_7592_2.jpg Well the package I got while it might have looked similar is absolutely nothing to do with the one I smelled the sample of P1050726.jpg . When I looked at the detail of the label I noticed that it is graphically slightly different. However, this one smells medicinal and Therapeutic. It imparts a very serious and somber frame of mind appropriate for solving problems or contemplating difficult issues. I have a feeling it is used for treatment of stomach aliments because it gives a very calming effect.

A great find is the Keiga Byakudan (Sandalwood sticks). they were reviewed at ORS. At an incredible prize you get a great Sandalwood stick and very little else. Granted the scent is not creamy or pop corn y like the larger chips by Daihatsu but this is very close. This is a clean smell that is not marred by other strong scents and does not have the acidity associated with sticks dipped in oils or synthetics but rather what ever is there is to play a supporting role and to enhance the smell. At that cost I'll lite 2of them at the same time. http://www.japanincense.com/kg-0019.html
 
Just burning some of Oudimentary's Tarakan Hitam chips on my newly-arrived electric burner from Mermade's. Great burner! So glad to not be doing the charcoal thing anymore. Electric burners are definitely the way to go in savoring the chip, and savoring its aroma all the way through. Highly recommended.

The chips are not significantly resinated, but are definitely good quality. Good for the price. They give a very nice sweet and pleasant agarwood aroma.
 
Just burning some of Oudimentary's Tarakan Hitam chips on my newly-arrived electric burner from Mermade's. Great burner! So glad to not be doing the charcoal thing anymore. Electric burners are definitely the way to go in savoring the chip, and savoring its aroma all the way through. Highly recommended.

The chips are not significantly resinated, but are definitely good quality. Good for the price. They give a very nice sweet and pleasant agarwood aroma.
I have one of these electric incense heaters and really love it - especially with Lamb's breath or Mermade's kyphi.

A question for you Oudiferous - have you tried the premium agarwood chips from Scented Mountain? I have some and feel underwhelmed by these chips. I haven't tried any other agarwood chips and hence can't compare the SM chips to anything else. Would love to hear if you tried some and if yes, what do you think of these chips?

Thanks.
 
A great find is the Keiga Byakudan (Sandalwood sticks). they were reviewed at ORS. At an incredible prize you get a great Sandalwood stick and very little else. Granted the scent is not creamy or pop corn y like the larger chips by Daihatsu but this is very close. This is a clean smell that is not marred by other strong scents and does not have the acidity associated with sticks dipped in oils or synthetics but rather what ever is there is to play a supporting role and to enhance the smell. At that cost I'll lite 2of them at the same time. http://www.japanincense.com/kg-0019.html
Love these sandalwood sticks along with Shunkohdo Sarasoju. Another japanese sandalwood incense I would highly recommend is the one from Minorein.
 
I have one of these electric incense heaters and really love it - especially with Lamb's breath or Mermade's kyphi.

A question for you Oudiferous - have you tried the premium agarwood chips from Scented Mountain? I have some and feel underwhelmed by these chips. I haven't tried any other agarwood chips and hence can't compare the SM chips to anything else. Would love to hear if you tried some and if yes, what do you think of these chips?

Thanks.
I haven't tried Mermade's kyphi, but have some Lamb's Breath on its way. Mermade's sent me some "Earth Church", which is quite nice. They seem to have a good hand in creating earthy incense.

Regarding Scented Mountain, I haven't tried any of their agarwood chips. They don't seem up to snuff to you? That is probably true then. I always go for the highest quality available if I can, and SM usually has good prices.

And I second your recommendation of Minorien's sandalwood incense. Very good quality! Same with their Frankincense.
 
Kyukyodo's Yumemachi is a very nice sandalwood incense. It smells like the scent of the sandalwood chips that Baieido sells, just pure sandalwood, no added spices or oils like many other sandalwood sticks.

Like Abubakr, I prefer my oud over charcoal, but lambs breath, other bakhs and hojari are best on the electric burner.

-- ibn futuwwah
 
Just noticed that Scented Mountain have added "highest" quality agar wood chips from Thailand. The chips seem to have some good resin buildup - itching to place an order.
 
epidoc, I have tried SM chips and I think I wrote back here somewhere about them. I got the Emperor Agrawood sticks/wand. They smell typical cultivated Oud. Not much complexity or depth. They are dry and Hay like in smell and they are a great way to scent the room quickly. I have lit them the way they described on the site, lighting on and putting off repeatedly and I have burned some on Charcoal and ash and that was less successful because they are thin and they burn rather quickly over charcoal before they manage to release their aromas. They fared a bit better on the electrical burner. In general they can't be compared to wild harvested and older type of Oud. Additionally, I had written the people at Scented Mountain an E-mail notifying them of our shared experience of their sticks going off repeatedly during burning. They were kind enough to respond and here is what they said :"... We try to put as much high quality agarwood as possible into these incense sticks. If we add more binder (that helps keep the incense burning) it takes away from the agarwood content and can reduce the quality of the aroma. We have had only a few people indicate the sticks had to be relighted and we suggested to them to increase air movement around the sticks. This helps keeps them going. Also using an incense burner that keeps the stick upright and in the open air can help (instead of a stick down in a burner with sides). We are a bit reluctant to reduce the amount of agarwood in the high quality sticks and increase the concentration of the binder but we will take a close look at this situation and see what can be done."

@ibn, where do you get your Yumemachi? I see that Kyukyoodo have discontinued them.