What's on your burner today?

[ibn]

masstika, my kyukyodo sandalwood incense came from an acquaintance in Japan some time ago. FWIW, the 'Premium, Old Sandalwood Specialty Incense' from ecclecstacy is quite good for a traditional 'pure' sandalwood scent, and the sticks are 'temple' length too. I have no recent experience dealing with them but if i recall correctly they were a little slow to ship at times. Please remember that it is best to sample before buying, if possible. We may not share the same tastes and values.

My experience with sandalwood incense, including many of the ones mentioned here, is that while they may contain some sandalwood or sandalwood oil (natural or synthetic), they present an accord which is not the true scent of mysore sandalwood.

My experience with oud chips is that there is some great stuff out there that is beyond my modest means. The closest I can get to the quality I would like is a sampler pack of Shoyeido's Translucent Path incense

Has anyone tried Oudline's King Super grade chips ?

 

[masstika]

ibn, I have tried Oudline's King super grade chips less than a year a go. I have to say they were the best smelling Oud chips I have had by far. if memory serves me right, they had that unique warm cinnamon/clove like smell with a slight acidic note to balance the sweetness. Extremely good buy
For s andalwood the best I have smelled so far were the chips from Daihatsu followed by the sandalwood "leaf cut" by Shunkohdo . The Daihatsu is warm, soft and pop corn like sweet smell with little acidity. The chips are shiny, moist and sticky the touch. The Shukohdo on the other hand is drier, fracture and less sweet. Could be a bit acidic and not as deep or warm but it is roughly half the cost.

 

[ibn]

@masstika - thanks for your kind reply and for sharing your valuable experience. The benchmark/reference I use for mysore sandalwood is the Baieido byakudan sandalwood chips.

I have some palo santo chips on the burner this morning. Palo santo is a tree in the frankincense/myrrh family which grows in the amazon and elsewhere in south america. It is very purifying and calming.

 

[ibn]

It is strange the way that some thoughts and memes find a way to enter our lives just when they are most needed. Here is one.


"If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft
And from thy slender store two loaves (of bread) alone to thee are left
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.”

Moslih Saadi, Persian poet who lived in 13th century

 

[masstika]

ibn, How is the Baieido's Sandalwood Chips smell like? Can you describe it? and how's the packaging look like, if you don't mind me asking? I am surprised the poet didn't tell him to sell BOTH loaves of bread

 

[ibn]

masstika, the Baieido sandalwood chips are the only ones i am familiar with so i can not make a direct comparison with the Daihatsu or others.

How do they smell ?

They could most accurately and succinctly be desribed as smelling like ... mysore sandalwood

A more effusive description might be to say that they have a creamy, woody, slightly spicy, gentle scent. The actual scent will depend on how they are heated, whether by coal or electric burner and how the coal and ash is prepared or the burner is set.

I intend no unkindness when i say that pine resin, when burnt, serves best to remind us of the beauty of hojary and sandalwood, oud. Each has its own beauty, value and and place in the scheme of things but after burning good oud chips nothing else satisfies quite so much.

Regarding the packaging, the Japanese are masters of the art of presentation. A google for 'Baieido Byakudan chips' will yield any number of photos of a lovely little box (mine is brown) with a baggie full of wood chips and an insert in Japanese which I can not read but which no doubt describes the 12 generations of wood buyers who have worked for Baieido over the last 400 or more years and how their accumulated knowledge of sandalwood trees, passed from generation to generation, is a guarantee of the finest product.

It probably then goes on to talk about the Japanese incense ceremony, the type of materials used, and the correct way to show respect to this tree when using the chips.

 

[Edward T]

Hello Masstika or anyone else for that matter. If you do get some high quality sandalwood chips I would suggest burning them simultanously with a high quality Cambodian chip like the Khao Yai or something of similiar quality. I'm burning both together right now and it's an incredible combination.

 

[YouNight]

ibn, How is the Baieido's Sandalwood Chips smell like? ...and how's the packaging look like, if you don't mind me asking?

Here's a pic I took of one of my boxes. I, too, love Baieido's Byakudan chips.
I noticed that the price of them nearly doubled a little while back. Still worth it, in my opinion.

 

[masstika]

Thanks ibn. Ed, that's a great idea, I'll make sure t try it this week end. I don't know why it never occurred to me. some times I burn them consecutively but never tried them at the same time. Thanks YouNight for the Pic. It's very nice packaging and I am sure that bag once opened it smells fantastic. I was wondering, does the plastic bag have a zip lock on it or once it cut open it stays open?

 

[YouNight]

Thanks YouNight for the Pic. It's very nice packaging and I am sure that bag once opened it smells fantastic. I was wondering, does the plastic bag have a zip lock on it or once it cut open it stays open?

My pleasure, masstika.
The bag is a zip-loc style one. Good for freshness. =)

 

[ibn]

Hello Masstika or anyone else for that matter. If you do get some high quality sandalwood chips I would suggest burning them simultanously with a high quality Cambodian chip like the Khao Yai or something of similiar quality. I'm burning both together right now and it's an incredible combination.

Here is an interesting youtube video showing sandalwood and oud being burnt together in ash.

 

[masstika]

The vertical piece of wood I am assuming is the Sandalwood chip and I am sure what is the powder that he used to start the fire? Very nice especially how tender he was with the ash when the fire was just starting up. Thanks ibn for sharing.

 

[ibn]

@masstika: I was wondering the same thing about the powder. It looked a little like makko powder but it could have been sandalwood powder too. The video looks like it was made in an incense maker/vendor's stall so i'd guess its makko.

The key to this technique seems to be to regulate the burn by covering the smoldering wood powder and sandalwood stick with just the right amount of ash, leaving a small space for oxygen to enter and smoke to exit.

 

[AbuAyoob]

Today I burned Nipponkodo Grapefruit sticks and they hit the spot. Today's weather here where I am in Canada got up to 56 degrees feranheit and that citrus note hit the spot. I got a few goodies in from japanincense and must say I am a bug fan of Japanese incense now. Also I am waiting for my order to come in from agarscentsbazaar (saffron musk, Kashmiri kashturi and mitti with musk sticks).

 

[ibn]

I burn Omani hojari first thing in the morning, almost every day.

I wouldn't generally mix the two, but today i followed up with some lamb's breath just to check out a hypothesis.

It reminds me in some ways (the musky softness) of the nice nag champa and musk incenses I used to smell when walking down the street past the head shops in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco back in the late 60s. The modern versions of these incenses just don't seem to compare to the old ones.

@AbuAyoob - If you like mitti, the mitti attar that whitelotusaromatics used to sell is excellent. I was sad to see that they discontinued almost all of their nice attars and am thankful I managed to get a small amount of each one before they disappeared. I hope they return because I would like to restock on amberi, which was a SOTD for me for a long time.

 

[YouNight]

I'm keeping it simple and inexpensive this morning with some Palo Santo chips.

The sweet, almost coconutty note, and the smooth and creamy woodiness is something that I enjoy.
It's too inexpensive not to keep some around at all times.

 

[masstika]

The Grapefruit sticks are diffidently nice especially on those first spring morning days. You should try burning some Frankincense from Eritrea. That dry clean camphor note goes well with the sourness of the Grapefruit stick. For me, it's the opposite perception of the temperature; it's an unseasonably cool 68F degrees so it time for couple of sticks of Keigado, Keiga Byakudan (Sandalwood) to warm up the atmosphere and at such cost I can easily burn 2 or 3 sticks. lately I have been enjoying burning some Sandalwood with Oud at the same time after watching the video clip by ibn. I have not been able to replicate the same experience because in my trials I found that the sandalwood leaf or chips burn much faster than the Aloeswood so I find myself constantly fudging around the ash and trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to control the burning speed between those different chips but for the few perfect moments when the 2 smokes interwove into one sublime mix that makes it worth the effort. I think if I get small log pieces I would be more successful at making the sandalwood burn at the same speed as the Oud chips. Has any one tried this Sandalwood log? http://www.saffron-road.org/index.php/sandalwood/mysore/sandlewood-wood-100g.html

 

[AbuAyoob]

Masstika I will try that combo a little later today as I now have to sneak in burn time so that I do not disturb little man. I am not a big fan of the NK Ginger sticks as I am not getting any ginger out of them, there seems to be a floral note that dominates the scent.

Yesterday in the evening I burned Kunmaido's Reiryo Koh and they have a nice softness to them that I enjoy in a more open area. And the Keigado Jiyou Koh sticks are from their Less Smoke line, a very clean fresh scent to them good for an afternoon break. And my favorite are the Tokusen Kobunboku which is a combination of sandalwood Oud and other spices, a phenomenal scent right out of the box spicy and sweet!

Thanks to you all for introducing a brother to Japanese incense, pretty cool!

Ibn, the only mitti that I have tried were from agarscentsbazaar's mitti with musk sticks in the past, which led to my purchase. As far as oil I have not had the chance to sample any yet and will try to acquire some.

 

[ibn]

@masstika: QT has some different kinds of sandalwood sticks in his store here
Like you, I am getting interested in trying out the method in the video.

@AbuAyoob: Its getting harder to find good quality attars at a good price. I haven't tried rksons mitti attar but i'd expect it to be ok.

 

[Oudiferous]

@AbuAyoob - If you like mitti, the mitti attar that whitelotusaromatics used to sell is excellent. I was sad to see that they discontinued almost all of their nice attars and am thankful I managed to get a small amount of each one before they disappeared. I hope they return because I would like to restock on amberi, which was a SOTD for me for a long time.

Ibn, you can acquire the Amberi Attar that was previously sold by WLA from John Steele, here: http://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/c-130-authentic-indian-attars-jsteele.aspx

The other Attars he has is what remains of WLA's stock.

On my burner today: Beautifully resinated Laos wood that Edward T sent me. Really nice and rich aroma.