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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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