Yamuna


Incense Name: Yamuna 
Manufacturer: Ramakrishnanda Vedic Church
City: New York
Country: United States
Description on Package: Vanilla, Copal & Amber

Type: Masala Stick
Scent Family: Blend
Strength: Medium-Strong
Burn Time: 1 hour
Afterburn Linger: 1 hour
Smoke: Medium
Good For: Meditation, relaxation, making love, listening to heavily-produced electronica.

Review: Where the heck did this stuff come from? New York? Not the first place that comes to mind when I think of fine-quality incense. But the Ramakrishnanda Vedic Church is obviously in it to win it. And they’ve won me. By a Big Apple mile, this is my favorite personal incense discovery of 2008. My many years of roaming American streets in search of good incense (including New York) never yielded a glimpse of this stuff. Then suddenly…blamo! Quality incense recipes don't happen overnight, you know. It’s a craft that can take years and years of refinement and patience to get just right. These methods are sometimes passed down several generations and still only yield mediocre results.
So how did these New Yorkers pull it off? I like to imagine Ramakrishnanda’s incensuers traveling though India and stumbling upon an ancient and carefully guarded masala recipe. So yeah, I'm hard-pressed to imagine a stick this good really being born in the USA. But origins aside—trust me—you'll be seeing and smelling their incenses everywhere in five years.
Yamuna lays out a solid and extremely balanced warmth that—no kidding—tingles through your body almost immediately after light-up. The mix of ingredients (vanilla, copal, & amber) play off of each other so perfectly that it is hard to isolate the individual parts. Blended together in convincing unity, the scent is surprisingly earthy and blissful, unimposing yet magnetic. But the superior blending doesn't obscure the vibrational affects possessed by these high quality ingredients: the vanilla provides warmth, the copal gives potency, and the amber is the grounding.    
Because Yamuna is so body-centric, I highly recommend it for meditation or casual relaxation. With a single stick, stress relief is a reflex. It indeed may be impossible to fight back the pleasantly mellowing affects of this stuff, and why would you? It's the sober man's after-work beer. A misleading comparison perhaps. It would be a mistake to imply this stick propagates a "manly" odor. Indeed, I'm certain Yamuna would have permeated the Lillith Fairs if it were on the market a decade ago. And what did we smell instead during the reign of Lillith? Usually Auroshika, whose incenses I too often confuse with a blast of liberally discharged "Rain" perfume. 
But hey, for no good reason I've taken an all-star incense and degenerated into gender-scent political yappin'. So let me say it this way instead—I'm a dude, this stuff is named Yamuna for chrissakes, and I still think it’s the shit. Or as my inner-goddess buried beneath an obviously well-crafted and macho veneer is gently sighing—every breath of Yamuna is simply a gift! Go USA! Go goddess!

Reviewed by Incense Nose

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Mysore Sugandhi Chandan Dhoop


Incense Name: Mysore Sugandhi Chandan Dhoop
Manufacturer: Mysore Sugandhi Dhoop Factory Pvt. Ltd.
City: Bombay
Country: India
Description on Package: Highly recommended for all religious ceremonies and social functions in Hindu temples, churches, musjids and agiaries, produces very good fragrance.
Slogan on Package: Export Quality

Type: Dhoop Stick
Scent Family: Wood
Strength: Medium-Strong
Burn Time: 30 minutes
Afterburn Linger: 45 minutes
Smoke: Medium
Good For: Body-oriented rituals, pranks.

Review: I’ve seen this stuff around for years. The price is certainly right, so I’m not sure why I prolonged purchasing a box of Chandan Dhoop until starting these reviews. And what a splendid little box it is, concurrently reminding me of money…and a deck of cards.
Wait, I just opened the first flap. Let’s upgrade this whole experience to that of savoring a fine box of cigars. Now revealed is a bordered photo of a boyish-faced incense king surrounded by the words “Under the Patronage of H.H. the Maharaja of Mysore.” Very serious incense. I’m quite impressed—and am now kicking myself for waiting so long to buy this fancy little box. Chandan Dhoop, translation, Sandalwood Dhoop. I love sandalwood!
I flip up the boy-king flap to reveal a thin layer of cotton majestically draped over the dhoop sticks. Wow! The presentation is so flawless that I don’t even want to be touching this incense let alone burning it.
The cigar aura is reinforced as I pick up a very thick but short dhoop stick. Holding one in my fingers is reminiscent of the last few proud puffs of a stogy. I bring it to my nose for a whiff, and hmm… damn… wasn’t expecting that. It was a perfect experience to that point. But ouch, strike one.

Quite a bit harder to light than a cigar—though after several attempts, I’m in. And oh lordy honeybucket, I want out... What was once perfect is now too damn human. Strike five! Yer out already! I go back to the box for any clue that might have prepared me for the stench now hilariously defiling my apartment. 100% pure, but goddamn! Pure what?
A tiny font on the first flap reads:
“Highly recommended for all religious ceremonies and social functions in Hindu temples, churches, musjids and agiaries.”
Well, out of fairness, this list doesn’t mention anything about apartments. I must be burning this out of context. I owe it to the Mysore Sugandhi Dhoop Factory to visit one of these mentioned locations before lighting up another of their phat stanky dhoops. If it hits me any differently—I promise I’ll update this post.
Would I recommend it? Sure. For only $2.00 you get the prettiest box of incense under the sun. Just don’t burn it in a secular environment.

Review by Incense Nose

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Cinnamon


Incense Name: Cinnamon
Slogan on Package: True to Nature
Manufacturer: Auroshikha
City: Pondicherry
Country: India

Type: Aromatic Oil-Dipped Stick
Scent Family: Spice
Strength: Medium-Strong
Burn Time: 1 hour
Afterburn Linger: 2 hours
Smoke: Medium

Good For: Studying, after dinner chill-out, holiday parties.

Review: This incense is a real pleasure to burn. The manufacturers have used a high quality pure cinnamon essential oil and almond oil, and according to their packaging the process is done in accordance with Swiss ingredient standards. It also states on the label that it is hand-made without glues, creating a non-toxic and low smoke incense. The quality is apparent, because not only does this incense smell natural, but it smells the same burning as it does unburned. This is so rare in the world of incense! The only word of caution I have is to store this incense in the original packaging, because a half-burned stick will lose it's aroma if left out in the open air for later use. This is common with pure essential oils and is only a minor inconvenience.

Reviewed by Heather A.

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