dhuni

Four new sumptous blends for 2012

dhuni — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:06:37 +0000

Not one, not two, not three, but…four new delicious blends have been added to the dhuni range for 2012. Launching in time for the festive season Frangipani, Lakshmi, Sandalwood and Temple can now be purchased on line from our store. For more information on each click on the individual blends and we hope you enjoy…!

Sandalwood Incense Blend

These incredible Sandalwood incense sticks are surely to become the most revered of all the dhuni range. The trees themselves take between 60-80 years to reach maturity and produce the finest quality powder and essential oil within the heartwood, which is used to make these exquisite sticks. Sandalwood has been used within the ancient craft of incense for over 4000 years and is renowned for it’s luxurious woody aroma.

Frangipani Incense Blend

With the quality of our Nag Champa blend these pure Frangipani incense sticks are just slightly thinner and milder than their wider known part. Intense floral overtones are perfectly balanced by their halmaddi base. These, alongside Moksha and Lotus Flower are not to be missed by Champa lovers.

Lakshmi Incense Blend

Like the Hindu goddess herself our Lakshmi incense sticks are made with the object of uplifting mankind. They exude beauty, grace and charm and are by far the most feminine of our range. Subtle hints of ylang-ylang come through a delicate and perfectly balanced halmaddi base – completely delicious!

Temple Incense Blend

As their name suggests these wonderful sticks conjure up the smokey and devotional aromas of temples across India. Dry and spicy with an intricate blend of herbs, barks and natural resin these are not to be missed by the true Indiaphile.

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The ancient art of burning incense

dhuni — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:31:54 +0000

Archaeological evidence from numerous cultures tells our most ancient ancestors used natural incense burning for sacred and healing purposes. People have always recognized that burning plant materials can heighten the senses, and pleasantly alter our state of consciousness. When early man gathered around his dhuni, the smell of aromatic woods, herbs and leaves was perhaps a primary sensory pleasure, as well as an early method of honouring fire as a one of the transformative elements of our universe.

Historically speaking, incense and Herbal medicine go hand-in-hand, and amongst our oldest source books we have regarding these are Athar-vaveda and the Rigveda. The first is commonly considered first phase of Ayurveda and deals with the subject in a more magical and religious approach to physical healing. Examination of early Vedic texts indicates that the herbalists, or healers were a second tier of Hindu priest that emerged out of the agrarian areas. They appear to assimilated their knowledge of herbalism with the rituals and beliefs of the orthodox or “Sacrificial” priests.

Ingredients of Traditional Natural Incense

1. Ether (Fruits) Star Anise
2. Water (Stems & Branches) Sandalwood, Aloeswood, Cedarwood, , Cassia, Frankincense, Myrrh, Borneol
3. Earth (Roots) Turmeric, Vetivert, Ginger, Costus Root, Valerian, Spikenard
4. Fire (flower) Clove
5. Air (leaves) Patchouli

We know that natural incense was first brought to China by a monk around 200 CE and that by the Tang dynasty (618 – 607), incense was in common use and no longer restricted to religious or medical practice. Stick incense was developed in China during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Around this time, the art of making incense became highly developed in Japan where it became so popular that entire schools were devoted to the art, or Koh-Do, ‘the way of incense’.

Ingredients include leaves, flowers, roots, barks, woods, resins, gums and oils, and most frequently frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood, rose petals, cinnamon, pine, benzoin, cedar, bay, rosemary, and basil. In India, sandalwood, lavender, golden champa, patchouli, rose, jasmine, vanilla, cloves, nutmeg, citronella, sesame, hibiscus, cardamom, saffron, ginger, lotus, kadamba, hena, and camphor.

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Announing a new blend! Bhakti !

dhuni — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:40:06 +0000

Over the last weeks we’ve been tinkering, experimenting, blending, sniffing and salivating over a new incense blend which we’re calling Bhaktii. This is very different from our other blends, with a delicious sweetness to it. It’s a thick, extremely aromatic stick that’s fresh, intense and very friendly to the nose. This is the kind of stick you pick up on when entering a yoga shala, with an exotic subnote, topped off with a number of subtle overtones.

We’ve called it Bhakti – which means devotion in Sanskrit, but suggests a participatory relationship with the divine. A bhakti in India is someone lost in love for the divine, or whose chosen method of spiritual practice is that of devotion, as opposed to the other traditional Indian schools of jnani yoga – knowledge, or karma yoga – action or helping others.

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The best nag champa incense in the world?

dhuni — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:33:13 +0000

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Nag Champa

is surely the most famous incense fragrance in the world. Most often seen under the brand name of a certain frizzy haired Indian guru name Sai Baba, Nag Champa incense has, in our opinion, fallen into a state of grace decline over these last years so that it’s almost impossible to find anything decent. Living in India for several years we made it our mission to seek out a proper nag champa agarbatti wherever we went, asking incense makers, essential oil merchants, Ayurvedic specialists, wandering herbalists, and smelling a thousand intoxicating and occasionally horrific scents in the process ! Can this really be what all the fuss is about we wondered. Occasionally, smelling a reasonable quality nag champa incense stick before some smiling incense maker, we caught a glimpse of just what the scent might be capable of. But quickly the raw ingredients were overtaken by the whiff of charcoal, overpowering essential oil, or a toxic glue that almost all the modern incense makers use in this day and age.

Finally, almost at our wits end, the apple on the head moment came one day in Bangalore, down a dusty lane in a quiet quarter on the outskirts of town. We’d stopped for chai and were dawdling when suddenly, over the stench of rickshaw fumes and Tata truck diesel came a wisp of smoke. Here at last was something not just promising, but downright spectacular and we quickly followed the incense to its source, found out where it was from, and tracked down the man who was to become the Dhuni master incense maker.

Smell our nag champa incense sticks for the first time and you’ll realise what we felt that day. Made entirely from natural barks, flowers, herbs, spices and resins – and containing that most special of incense ingredients ‘halmaddi’, you’ll smell a delicate and refined blend of ingredients created in a time-honoured fashion in India, then sent to us in the UK. All the plant botanicals are picked and harvested by hand, and the sticks are dried under the sun. It is incredibly labour intensive, and above all done with love. Many hours are taken to produce a small number of sticks which is why they’re a little more expensive than many other brands.

Recently, Mike from the legendary ‘Olfactory Incense Review’ site has been kind enough to say the following about our nag champa, explaining its intricacies a bit better, perhaps, than we can.

Dhuni Nag Champa Incense

‘If I was to recommend one of the many “vanilla” nag champas on the market, it would have to be this one as it’s easily the most authentic Nag Champa I’ve come across in the modern age, even more so than Shantimalai’s red box version, which is perhaps this scent’s closest equivalent. No doubt this is due to the halmaddi content in the mix, which if it isn’t high enough to make this gooey like in the old days is certainly high enough to give the scent the balsalmic backdrop it needs. Overall this is a nag champa that tends to a much drier and less overtly sweet bouquet with a distinct sandalwood strength to help bring out its richness. This one’s essential.’

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dhuni gets rave review!

dhuni — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:42:53 +0000

A special thanks to the Olfactoryrescueservice who have recently written some very nice things about us! Surely the most erudite incense site on the web, these incense gurus call our organic nag champa incense blend, ‘the most authentic version of the (straight) scent… smelled in 15 years or so…’ We are thrilled! It’s been our first year of trading and, hearing things like this, make it all worth while. A Merry Christmas to all.

Just wanted to mention this company’s remarkable incense, eight champa/flora styles all made with the highest quality ingredients. What particularly impressed me was their nag champa, which is the most authentic version of the (straight) scent I’ve smelled in 15 years or so. I will have reviews of these coming up after the holidays but it would be remiss of me not to mention them now as the packages would make nice holiday gifts. And while a scent or two of these are similar to other incenses, I think these could be the best versions (for instance Kashi is similar to Honey Dust or Satya Natural but better quality).

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Another year passes…

dhuni — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:13:26 +0000

It’s about that time of year to close the curtains, make sure the fire’s well stoked, light a Dhuni natural incense stick and feel thankful for the things we’ve got. Gratitude is a nice thing to realise, however it appears the years turned out. Gratitude for this present moment which, in any case, is all there is…

Here at Dhuni we’ve much enjoyed bringing your our selection of organic incense sticks this year, and we’ve been thrilled to receive so many nice letters and comments which tell us we’ve done something to be proud of. Thanks to all of you.

For those of you who don’t feel the years turned out so great, and indeed for those who do, we offer this ancient Zen story to mull over while the snow falls….

There once was a herdsmen in rural China. One day the farmer’s best horse leapt the fence and ran away. The farmer’s neighbours, hearing of the loss, came to the farmer’s house to offer their condolences. As they stood there, the neighbors all said, “Oh what bad luck!” But the farmer simply shrugged and said “Perhaps.”

A week went by when suddenly, the horse returned! Not only did it return, it brought with it a whole herd of wild horses, which the farmer and his son quickly corralled. The neighbours, needless to say, came to see for themselves. “Oh what good luck!” they said to the farmer. He shrugged and looked non plussed. “Perhaps,” he said.

Now another fortnight passed. Then, one day while riding one of these new horses, the farmer’s son’s leg was badly broken. Things got worse. A few days later the broken leg became infected and the son became delirious with fever. The neighbors, keen to keep abreast of the farmer’s shifting fortunes, came to see the son. “Oh what bad luck!” they all said in unison. Of course the farmer replied, offering his characteristic shrug: “Perhaps.”

More time passed and, in the local province, conflict broke out between two rival warlords. In need of more recruits, a captain came to the village to conscript young men to fight in the war. The streets were filled with the wailing of mothers whose sons had been taken from them. But, when the captain came to take the farmer’s son, he found the young man with a broken leg–delirious with fever. Knowing there was no way the son could fight, the captain left him there. A few days later, the son’s fever broke. The neighbors, hearing of the son’s miraculous escape and of his return to good health, all came to see him. As they stood there, each one said, “Oh what good luck!”

The farmer replied, “Perhaps.”

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Where can you buy our incense?

dhuni — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:53:21 +0000

We’ve been getting a lot of emails recently asking where you can buy our incense? I’m afraid you can only buy it in ONE place, which is right here at the moment. We produce it in India, then send it to the UK, and it reaches the world (well, for now) solely online. Obviously, being able to smell and handle it in person would be preferable but that hasn’t happened yet so you’ll just have to take our word that this isn’t one of those dodgy joss sticks from university, nor is it the semi decent agarbatti you may have smelt during a visit to Asia. This is an exceptional, once in a lifetime handrolled stick of perfection that is in a different league to anything we’ve ever smelt. It is made from solely natural botanicals grown and harvested in India. It is made without glues or synthetics of any kind. It is dried solely under the warmth of the sun. No machines are used any stage of its production. Even the packaging is made by hand in northern India, and the individual sealing wax stamps on each packet are done by us! Buy our incense in one click from Paypal and you can find out why we feel justified in boasting.

dhuni comes in a range of eight natural incense stick flavours. It uses no charcoal, no essential oils, and no additives of any kind. It is 100% Indian spices, bark and resin and it smells divine. If you check out any agarbatti in 2011, then be sure to buy our incense first! Om.

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Natural incense from india

dhuni — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:40:19 +0000

It’s not easy buying incense, even if you think you know what you’re looking for. During the years before we created dhuni, we literally searched most of Asia for an incense that met our requirements. We wanted something ethical, luxurious and incredibly special! Finally, through luck or fate, we met a special incense master in Bangalore, with whom we would end up producing our range. Encountering this was like reaching the end of a long journey and knowing you’ve found ‘it’ at last. In one sublime waft it was clear that this man was a true master of his art, and that the ancient indian tradition of hand-rolling agarbatti was still alive and well. Here was something fragrant without being overpowering, intense without being cloying, and which set the nostrils tingling with delight. We quickly set to work persuading this man to work with us, and figuring out just how we were going to bring this magical tradition to a larger audience without compromising the integrity of a cottage industry that’s been working perfectly well for several thousand years before automation, chemicals, charcoal blanks and all the other horrors got in the way.

Dhuni is about doing something incredibly simple, incredibly well.
We want you to buy incense which will make you realise how powerful an artform this can be.
We want you to be healthy, support natural farming, deepen your connection with the divine, whatever that may be.
We want you to discover the most sublime natural incense sticks on earth.

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Nag Champa Incense

dhuni — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:57:07 +0000

Indian incenses containing Plumeria, known in the West as frangipani, have Champa in their name. Champa incenses contain a semi-liquid resin (“halmaddi”) taken from the Ailanthus Malabarica tree, which gives them their characteristic grey color and damp texture: halmaddi is hygroscopic (it absorbs moisture from the air). Nag Champa incense is perhaps the most famous blend in the world, immediately redolent of temples and yoga shalas.

Plumeria flowers are most fragrant at night in order to lure sphinx moths to pollinate them. The flowers have no nectar, and simply dupe their pollinators. The moths inadvertently pollinate them by transferring pollen from flower to flower in their fruitless search for nectar.

Natural plumeria fragrance consists of as many as 60 volatile plant compounds. The white, pink, and yellow cultivars usually contain more scent than the reds or rainbow colored bloom, and give off a deep and resonant honey and vanilla scent.

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The interesting thing about frangipani perfume is that it was formulated by an Italian perfumer named Marquis Frangipani in the 16th century before the plant was discovered. Frangipani used his fragrance to scent gloves.

Later, when the plumeria flower was discovered, the scent reminded people of the fragrance of the gloves. They started calling them frangipani flowers.

The genus name, Plumeria, commemorates Charles Plumier, the botanist who actually discovered the tree. He also discovered the begonia, fuscia, lobelia and magnolia.

Frangipani flowers are held sacred in Bali, India and other tropical countries. They are used in religious ceremonies. Frangipani trees are often planted near temples and graves and revered as a “tree of life”, symbolizing the eternal nature of the soul. The frangipani is the national tree of Laos, where it is called dok jampa. Every Buddhist temple in Laos plants them in their courtyards.

In feng shui the frangipani is associated with love.

In India, champa plants are a symbol of immortality because of their ability to produce leaves and flowers even after it they’ve been lifted out of the ground. Champa is often planted near temples and graveyards, where the fresh flowers fall daily upon the tombs. In Hindu culture, the champa flower, or phool, symbolises loyalty. Hindu women put a flower in their hair on their wedding days to show their loyalty to their husbands. Burning nag champa incense is, therefore, a highly sacred affair in India and done for many reasons beyond merely its pleasing smell

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Natural Incense: you don’t need to be…..

dhuni — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:46:37 +0000

You don’t need to be a yogi or a meditator to burn incense. You don’t need to believe in strange Eastern cults or shave your head or chant Om six times a day. You don’t need to believe in a deity, or be aware of your third eye, or have had your chakras aligned by a swami wearing saffron robes. You don’t need to be a hippie, or favour kurta pyjamas over tracksuit bottoms. You don’t need to own a Tibetan singing bowl, or a homeopathic medicine kit, or eat granola for breakfast. You don’t need to know Tai Chi forms, or what a hara is, or how to breathe from your solar plexus so that your prana is better circulated. You don’t need to wear white to like incense, or to be able to touch your toes with your forehead. You don’t need to attend satsangs, or have an image of Sri someone or other on your mantlepiece which your ritually adorn with marigold flowers. You simply need to be attuned to smell, and to appreciate the healing and balancing power of natural botanicals. You need to be prepared to open your mind to something a little different, and to burn it with love.

Dhuni range of natural incense sticks

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