Compared 3 sticks that use Indonesian agarwood.

Baieido Kokonoe
a nice cocktail of agarwood, herbs, and resins.

Seikado Tokusen Chinsui Tani
a perfume like aroma paired with the agarwood.
Blossoms in spring, but is it natural aromatics,
like resins or extracts, or is there a synthetic component, I can’t be certain.

Yamadamatsu Shuju Sumotara
agarwood chip on medium heat.

I can sense the agarwood in all these sticks, but what region in Indonesia? I can’t even guess:(
 
Kida Jinseido Hanakokonoe

Thin stick, moderate amount of aroma.
Dry agarwood with a dollop of cream.

It must have been a challenge to exercise constraint with the recipe of this stick,
such minimal use of aromatics,
I’m impressed.
 
Going back and forth between
Baieido’s Jinkoh Kokoh and Kyara Kokoh

Not similar recipes at all
The Jinkoh has a powerful mix of herbs, but the agarwood is certainly there also, it’s always a discovery every time I light it up.
The Kyara really shines in the KK stick,
at first whiff it smelled like Shokaku,
but without doing a side by side, or having prior experience with Kyara, the experience will be lost.
That’s why I would not recommend Kyara Kokoh to a beginner.
 

Mr.P

oud<3er
I once smelled a baieido stick that was just dense rich green kyara - a more clear and distinct kyara scent even than translucent path. This was maybe around 2001 I think. I can’t remember what the stick was called, but I remember when I encountered translucent path I felt it was a slightly less clear kyara scent. I had a short piece of it at the time - came in a high-end sampler pack from baieido. Have you (or anyone) recently smelled a stick from baieido that has that “translucent path” level of kyara scent ? Every stick I have smelled since then has not been up to the quality of that one that I remember. I wonder if this has been discontinued or reformulated? I thought it was the kyara kokoh but based on your description it must have been something else as the kyara was dominant and absolutely impossible to miss.
 

Dan

True Ouddict
I once smelled a baieido stick that was just dense rich green kyara - a more clear and distinct kyara scent even than translucent path. This was maybe around 2001 I think. I can’t remember what the stick was called, but I remember when I encountered translucent path I felt it was a slightly less clear kyara scent. I had a short piece of it at the time - came in a high-end sampler pack from baieido. Have you (or anyone) recently smelled a stick from baieido that has that “translucent path” level of kyara scent ? Every stick I have smelled since then has not been up to the quality of that one that I remember. I wonder if this has been discontinued or reformulated? I thought it was the kyara kokoh but based on your description it must have been something else as the kyara was dominant and absolutely impossible to miss.
Baieido's highest level Kyara stick is Kyara Koh-Koh ... I'm certain it could've been that

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
 

Andrew Salkin

it's aboud time!
Staff member
Any last minute tips before I try my hand at this?
 

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Mr.P

oud<3er
What’s the bay seasoning for? Is this an ingredient for your blend? My advice is to not use supermarket powdered spices - they are terrible compared to good quality fresh whole material and I fell like I spoiled some of my first blends by using pre-ground spices from the market.

Also - It can be very challenging reducing the wood to a fine powder. How do you plan to do this? How fine is that hand grinder? I ended up using Turkish coffee grinders and a very fine mesh sieve. Shake the powder through, feed the splinters back into the grinder.

one other thing - grind the wood slowly. The burr can get hot and melt the resin and the whole thing gets gummed up.
 

Andrew Salkin

it's aboud time!
Staff member
The old bay was my version of a bad joke :) Everything else I'm considering - especially a little benzoin. I'll take your advice on not including the cinnamon powder.
 
I once smelled a baieido stick that was just dense rich green kyara - a more clear and distinct kyara scent even than translucent path. This was maybe around 2001 I think. I can’t remember what the stick was called, but I remember when I encountered translucent path I felt it was a slightly less clear kyara scent. I had a short piece of it at the time - came in a high-end sampler pack from baieido. Have you (or anyone) recently smelled a stick from baieido that has that “translucent path” level of kyara scent ? Every stick I have smelled since then has not been up to the quality of that one that I remember. I wonder if this has been discontinued or reformulated? I thought it was the kyara kokoh but based on your description it must have been something else as the kyara was dominant and absolutely impossible to miss.
I love Koshiboku so much that I have 5 boxes.
3 bundles in the Paulownia box, a bundle of thick long sticks, and a sample box. The long sticks and sample box are the joint venture with Kohgen.
Of those 5 boxes, there are four distinct batches.
It’s surprising to see such batch variations, so I am pretty certain that the old stick you have was Kyara Kokoh. Oh how I would love to have that batch.
 

Andrew Salkin

it's aboud time!
Staff member
Ok so my experiment went terribly. I guess the consistency of the incense paste wasnt right. At first too dry. Then too sticky and liquidy. In both scenarios it literally would get stuck in the syringe within seconds. I gave up and rolled little cones. Won't be trying that again. I give massive props to those like cannata and dr incense who manage to put out beautiful sticks. it is certainly not as easy as I had imagined.
 
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