Perhaps the most celebrated incense of them all, nag champa is as widely variable as a fine wine. Traditionally speaking, indian incenses made from Plumeria, often referred to in Europe as frangipani, are permitted to use the word ‘Champa’ in their description. Another ingredient is something known as ‘halmaddi’, a thin and exceptionally fragrant resin from the Ailanthus Malabarica tree. Rumour has it that this ‘halmaddi’ may even have some mood-enhancing or psychoative properties which led to it’s great price, and unfortunately also to such overuse that it is now part of biodiversity conservation measures to prevent the declining population of one of many non-timber forest products in India.
Here at dhuni it took us a while to rise to the challenge of making a nag champa incense stick. If we were going to do this then we were going to do it properly! That meant thinking very seriously about botanical sourcing, fragrance testing, and mainly about producing something which could live up the very high standards we’ve set ourselves. Firstly we bought and tested every well known nag champa product out there, including: nag champa soap, satya sai baba nag champa, nag champa agarbatti, nag champa cones, nag champa super hit, and satya nag champa. Suffice it to say, they were uniformly terrible.
Anyway, over the next two years, we’ve come up with something we think you’ll like. It’s a work of art if we say so ourselves.
