Incense of the Day

Tenpyo, Peaceful Sky. Stick Kodo, listening to the incense intently without doing anything else. The aloeswood used here is of definitely high range malaccensis (although, our noses can all be fooled, and some woods smell similar, like A. Hirta, but malaccensis seems more likely). It starts off with a very nice dark resin note, when I closed my eyes and wafted the smoke in to my nose I could smell that lovely dark, dark resin, with a woody backdrop, soon to be followed up by a light red berry and dark-ish purple berry hue, notes of sweetness but also bitterness, a bitter sweet that was more sweet prominent, some sourness but not that strong and potentially unnoticeable to someone who hasn't used these sticks at all before (I have been using these sticks a lot, albeit not every day, or even every week, but still a lot). Nearing the end, the sweetness took over and the bitterness was pretty much gone and the sourness had vanished (to my nose anyway), it was a nice sweet, light/dark red and purple hue, with some notes of chocolate oudiness, a very oud-y stick as well.

Overall, the reason I dont use these sticks on a regular is because your nose gets so used to them they because quite harsh and bad smelling, but that's not on the sticks, that is on the nose being so used to that smell. These are luxury sticks meant for usage once in a while to appreciate their true, real nature. 20 sticks should last you over 2months, AT LEAST.

All in all, lovely session, great sticks again by Shoyeido!!! 😘

EDIT: Also, according to ORS (Olfactory Rescue Service) Tenpyo, Peaceful Sky was originally a Kyara blend back in 2008. I am suspecting it has almost zero, if any at all, Kyara in it now and they have made it a purely high grade malaccensis stick. ORS review on it back in '08:
[Ouddict.com] Incense of the Day
 
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I received my Shoyeido Southern Wind half box yesterday and was eagerly waiting for the evening when I would have a listen. The time finally came hours later and I must say what a blessing it is to have the opportunity to try these at such a fraction of the cost. (I paid $20 AU for 9 sticks in total). I can't say when if ever I would have spent the full amount on a new box so I know how lucky I am. I've burnt maybe a quarter of the stick and plan to come back again tonight. It's almost a mystery this incense. I doubt I'll figure it out by the time I finish the box but that will take a while. The herbal clove holds it together possibly but the aloeswood is like a tease in this one. Turn your head away for a second distracted and this is when it decides to reveal itself. Bring your attention back and it floats away.. bizarre. Almost like a ghost. It's aptly named.
 
Dzongsar Monastery : Be Dur Ya
In the Tibetan incense realm, this is perhaps the polar opposite of Maunamoku's incense of the day.
Physically this looks more like a long Bhutanese stick. Quite thick.
Unlit, the ingredients are quite easy to pick out without any musk or fermented notes added here.
Woody and slightly camphorous with a mellow spice blend. This might be a Tibetan to try if you were a fan of Baieido's drier style of incense, but are put off by the stories of dank and fermented musk notes often found in Tibetan monastery incense. This incense can blend in to the background very easily and not overwhelm you.

For whatever reason, I'm going to pair this with a shincha from Tenryu, Shizuoka.
Foothills meet high altitude villages.
I feel like a Japanese tea farmer warming up by a fire in the evening.
 
Simla House said:
Dzongsar Monastery : Be Dur Ya
In the Tibetan incense realm, this is perhaps the polar opposite of Maunamoku's incense of the day.
Physically this looks more like a long Bhutanese stick. Quite thick.
Unlit, the ingredients are quite easy to pick out without any musk or fermented notes added here.
Woody and slightly camphorous with a mellow spice blend. This might be a Tibetan to try if you were a fan of Baieido's drier style of incense, but are put off by the stories of dank and fermented musk notes often found in Tibetan monastery incense. This incense can blend in to the background very easily and not overwhelm you.

For whatever reason, I'm going to pair this with a shincha from Tenryu, Shizuoka.
Foothills meet high altitude villages.
I feel like a Japanese tea farmer warming up by a fire in the evening.
Click to expand...
Can you give me a link to a website that has really good Tibetan sticks, that will deliver to the UK? Do they have a powerful or very subtle scent, generally? Also, compared to some luxury Japanese sticks and Japanese sticks in general, how costly are they at the very top ranges?
 
-Renton- said:
Can you give me a link to a website that has really good Tibetan sticks, that will deliver to the UK? Do they have a powerful or very subtle scent, generally? Also, compared to some luxury Japanese sticks and Japanese sticks in general, how costly are they at the very top ranges?
Click to expand...
Since Beth folded up her shop, you can try incense-traditions.ca. They're great and ship quickly.

I'd say Tibetan style incenses are typically not subtle, and can be a bit smokey, they are not refined and don't have expensive ingredients like our beloved Japanese sticks. The musky ones can be challenging for sure. There can be varieties of sandalwood and agarwood in them, but don't expect screaming notes of deep resinated woods. However, they have a very unique profile and contain medicinal herbs not found in other incenses. I'd recommend them for olfactory tourists and incense fans in general, just to try out. For me, they're highly nostalgic to the region and travel experiences, and I do like them during certain seasons and when the craving hits.
 
Simla House said:
Since Beth folded up her shop, you can try incense-traditions.ca. They're great and ship quickly.

I'd say Tibetan style incenses are typically not subtle, and can be a bit smokey, they are not refined and don't have expensive ingredients like our beloved Japanese sticks. The musky ones can be challenging for sure. There can be varieties of sandalwood and agarwood in them, but don't expect screaming notes of deep resinated woods. However, they have a very unique profile and contain medicinal herbs not found in other incenses. I'd recommend them for olfactory tourists and incense fans in general, just to try out. For me, they're highly nostalgic to the region and travel experiences, and I do like them during certain seasons and when the cravin
Click to expand...

-Renton- said:
Can you give me a link to a website that has really good Tibetan sticks, that will deliver to the UK? Do they have a powerful or very subtle scent, generally? Also, compared to some luxury Japanese sticks and Japanese sticks in general, how costly are they at the very top ranges?
Click to expand...
I've also been a long time fan of Tibetan style "dhoop" incense for many years. They can definitely be very smokey and often times smell identical to a campfire or a bush fire. Others can be fantastic. I would always (generally recommend) they be burnt outside for proper ventilation or only burn portions of a stick due to the amount of smoke they create. Whenever I find myself in possession of some dhoop that I'm not really into, instead of not burning them at all I turn them into a combustible powder instead, then blend something sweeter into the mix such as a sandalwood or some resins then proceeded to roll them back into Tibetan style or make cones.
 
Simla House said:
Since Beth folded up her shop, you can try incense-traditions.ca. They're great and ship quickly.

I'd say Tibetan style incenses are typically not subtle, and can be a bit smokey, they are not refined and don't have expensive ingredients like our beloved Japanese sticks. The musky ones can be challenging for sure. There can be varieties of sandalwood and agarwood in them, but don't expect screaming notes of deep resinated woods. However, they have a very unique profile and contain medicinal herbs not found in other incenses. I'd recommend them for olfactory tourists and incense fans in general, just to try out. For me, they're highly nostalgic to the region and travel experiences, and I do like them during certain seasons and when the craving hits.
Click to expand...
I am trained in Tibetan style incense art.

Japanese were the last of the three civilisations to come onto the incense making tradition, it was introduced to them by a Chinese monk who sailed across from China. The Chinese had refined the art form into many spheres, from appreciating it's smell, to the smoke and then writing poetry about it. There were only specific people who had attained a level of refinement who would be able to write poetry about the smoke trails from the incense.

Tibetan incense art is as old as Chinese if not older, however it has a different focus, and the focus is to drown out surrounding smell noise and provide a meditative environment. They utilise high grade ingredients, infact I would say the highest grade. What would usually happen was a hierarchy of how ingredients were filtered for the monks. A batch would come onto the market, the lower quality items sold to everyone else and the highest grade went to the monks.

The foundation of most if not all Tibetan incense is Himalayan cedar, different to the Chinese and Japanese, who use some form or binder or sandalwood.

Secondly for the most part Tibetan incense is not ground as finely as Chinese. Understanding mountain herbs and their use is a pivotal part of Tibetan incense, my teach spent more than a decade learning just Himalayan mount herbs.

I however adapted the art of Tibetan incense making to my own cultural philosophy, I will utilise a Oudh foundation and I spent a lot of time in studying and learning how to get Oudh to behave sticky like the Himalayan cedar.
 
Al Shareef Oudh said:
I am trained in Tibetan style incense art.

Japanese were the last of the three civilisations to come onto the incense making tradition, it was introduced to them by a Chinese monk who sailed across from China. The Chinese had refined the art form into many spheres, from appreciating it's smell, to the smoke and then writing poetry about it. There were only specific people who had attained a level of refinement who would be able to write poetry about the smoke trails from the incense.

Tibetan incense art is as old as Chinese if not older, however it has a different focus, and the focus is to drown out surrounding smell noise and provide a meditative environment. They utilise high grade ingredients, infact I would say the highest grade. What would usually happen was a hierarchy of how ingredients were filtered for the monks. A batch would come onto the market, the lower quality items sold to everyone else and the highest grade went to the monks.

The foundation of most if not all Tibetan incense is Himalayan cedar, different to the Chinese and Japanese, who use some form or binder or sandalwood.

Secondly for the most part Tibetan incense is not ground as finely as Chinese. Understanding mountain herbs and their use is a pivotal part of Tibetan incense, my teach spent more than a decade learning just Himalayan mount herbs.

I however adapted the art of Tibetan incense making to my own cultural philosophy, I will utilise a Oudh foundation and I spent a lot of time in studying and learning how to get Oudh to behave sticky like the Himalayan cedar.
Click to expand...
thanks for sharing that 👍
 
Pre-reformulation Baieido Tokusen Ho Ryu (Phoenix Dragon)
A very subtle and soft spoken Thai aloeswood centred creation with all the typical characteristics from the house of Baieido.

So many Japanese houses have altered their formulas and recipes over the past 10 years, I'm regretting not buying more during the early 2000's. I'm currently finalizing a few batches of orders of old favourites and it makes me a bit nervous after reading updated reviews from some of my go-to sticks 😰
 
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