Incense of the Day

KyaraZen - Dreams of Dali Kingdom - I was interested to see what post-distillation Yunnan material would be like, and what "Barnyard" meant in KZ's mind. The first time I burned it I was quite impressed, but after a couple of cm's I put it out and chose another stick. This morning I burned what remained of that first stick, and while it was oudy and nice, I'm not sure it's worth getting, considering you could get Dreams of ChenLa for the same price, and if that's close to Dreams of An-Nam then it's easily a much better purchase.

What you smell is something oudy but faint at the same time, so it kinda (I'm saying this begrudgingly) smells like a Hindi but very one dimensionally, with none of the resinous complex notes present in the after burn. There's no bright notes which I could discern during the last couple of burns, but I'll continue to pay attention to this one. Maybe like the dark roast coffee I'm drinking right now, it's just a matter of taste, and I'll start to enjoy it, but compared to the Dreams of Hai-Nan, Dreams of An-Nam and Dreams of Nanban it leaves a lot to be desired.
 
KyaraZen - Australian Sandalwood Joss Stick - Early into this one I got hints of Sumatran Benzoin, which was interesting. I got some from Ed back in the day, and that's what I'm comparing it too, but I felt even on very low heat Benzoin was too much. Otherwise fantastic "stick", not harsh nor pungent smoke given off, which surprising for a bamboo core. At 200 for 19 USD how could you ever complain ?

Gyokushodo - Jinkoh Yomei - A favorite of mine, reminds me of earlier this summer, when I burned it a lot. The indiscernible scent of freshly pressed linens, is what I can't seem to shake off from this one, coupled with a unique sort of spice. Wouldn't describe it as either spicy nor particularly sweet nor outright herbal. Always a show down between this and Jinkoh Yozei but reach for this one more often because I have more.
 
Ahmaoud said:
KyaraZen - Australian Sandalwood Joss Stick - Early into this one I got hints of Sumatran Benzoin, which was interesting. I got some from Ed back in the day, and that's what I'm comparing it too, but I felt even on very low heat Benzoin was too much. Otherwise fantastic "stick", not harsh nor pungent smoke given off, which surprising for a bamboo core. At 200 for 19 USD how could you ever complain ?

Gyokushodo - Jinkoh Yomei - A favorite of mine, reminds me of earlier this summer, when I burned it a lot. The indiscernible scent of freshly pressed linens, is what I can't seem to shake off from this one, coupled with a unique sort of spice. Wouldn't describe it as either spicy nor particularly sweet nor outright herbal. Always a show down between this and Jinkoh Yozei but reach for this one more often because I have more.
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I get a lot of sandalwood from Yomei, plus some nice scents. Yozei on the other hand, makes me think agarwood.
 
Oudamberlove said:
I get a lot of sandalwood from Yomei, plus some nice scents. Yozei on the other hand, makes me think agarwood.
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Hoen is another where I have no ability to sense the agarwood, it's basically smothered with sandalwood. Yomei I think I fell for the marketing material a bit too much, because I agree with your assessment, if I were to smell them blindly! Gotta burn more Yozei, I remember it being very distinct from the other three in the bunch, (Jinkoh Koujin the only other not yet mentioned)
 
KyaraZen - Dreams of Fragrant Harbour - Wow ..... if Dreams of Hai-Nan is the youngling the this one is the elderly statesman! Sinensis material showcases a similar brightness which defined Hai-Nan while being slightly reserved here. There's a complexity to the profile, apparent during the burn, not at all something you have to wait for. An orange-y note popped through briefly, reminded me of some Brunei oils and of course Kymya's Fragrant Harbour. No roasty notes detected, or anything deeply resinous, it somehow achieves a lightness in feel and a boldness in aura (I know that might not be helpful, but I can't describe it a better way). Imagine mixing Hai-nan with some Cambodi and maybe a sprinkle of Malay woods, that's what this reminds me of at the moment. Burned it in two short sessions, not to preserve the material but to really enjoy it, since it feels both subtle scent wise, and at moments, overpowering 🤷‍♂️
 
(Old Stock - When these sticks had entry level basic Wild Kyara in them) Tenpyo, Peaceful Sky.
peaceful sky sticks 1 .jpg


Thoughts about these sticks before I talk about the notes. I feel like each stick is different in some ways, either this or it is because I don't use them often at all because they are so rare and I want to keep these going for a few years (I have just over 30 and some of them aren't full sticks) and they just smell different to me each time because of my continuous nose refinement in the area of raw Wild Kyara, who knows, but if different sticks have different ratios of high grade aloeswood and entry level kyara in them, then that is quite unique tbh, but I honestly think it is a bit of both, nose refinement in the area of wild kyara and possibly some minor differences in each stick, I pick up different notes at different parts of the stick each time I burn one Kodo style.

Anyway, the notes started out this time with a nice sweet, resinous aloeswood note with a kinam mintiness that plays for quite a while, it is a very soft, gentle minty note (which is, of course, the kyara in these sticks, there is more kyara notes in these sticks than aloeswood notes most of the time, so any notes I speak about going further will mostly be kinamic), lovely pleasing bitterness, with a semi-sweet note attached to it, sweet red fruits, as it burns further the fruity notes take on a sweet and sour note, with a semi-sweet, sour cherry note, spiciness, spiciness + mintiness that softly hits the back of your throat and causes some minor numbing, elegant lovely woody notes, white and golden honeyed florals in the wind that eventually becomes a less airy note and stronger, vanillic creamy (kinamic) notes, coming close to the end you get a mix of all these notes coming together and finishes on a powdery, fresh linen smell, beautiful. No nubs left behind, all of it... turned to ash.
 
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Burned another inch of the kyarashrine sinking green kinam stick. Not bad for what it is!
 
-Renton- said:
I love that stick, such a great aloeswood stick, with both good quality sandalwood and aloeswood. You should try Ga-Ho Refinement and Nan-kun.
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You think they're actually worth it Renton? I see Ga-ho going for like 441 CAD, and in that range I could get 15 grams of a Dr. Incense sinking release, or countless KZ sticks. I'm kinda okay with Misho at like 126 CAD but I feel anything above that from Shoyeido, for plain Agarwood is terrible return on investment. What are your thoughts ?
 
Ahmaoud said:
You think they're actually worth it Renton? I see Ga-ho going for like 441 CAD, and in that range I could get 15 grams of a Dr. Incense sinking release, or countless KZ sticks. I'm kinda okay with Misho at like 126 CAD but I feel anything above that from Shoyeido, for plain Agarwood is terrible return on investment. What are your thoughts ?
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Oh no, I would NOT spend that much money on them. I can get them here for £55 for a 11cm box of 20 sticks, so the price I can get them at (even though isn't a full 35 stick box and they are a little shorter than the 18cm sticks, but a lot of Japanese incense are around 11-14cm anyway that I am used to) they are definitely worth it.
 
Ahmaoud said:
You think they're actually worth it Renton? I see Ga-ho going for like 441 CAD, and in that range I could get 15 grams of a Dr. Incense sinking release, or countless KZ sticks. I'm kinda okay with Misho at like 126 CAD but I feel anything above that from Shoyeido, for plain Agarwood is terrible return on investment. What are your thoughts ?
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Also, I can get a box of (small 11cm) sticks of Misho for £38-39. I wonder why they are so expensive in Canada?
 
Ahmaoud said:
Gyokushodo - Jinko Kojurin - One of the cheapest sticks I own, yet burning it delights me to no end! Light yet prevalent aroma, bitter but not overly so, it was a love at first burn. The curry note from the Reiryo-koh is wonderfully sweetened here, without losing its bite!
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I have tried all of that range, these are very nice sticks, 100%. You should try their "Traditional range" of sticks... they are amazing, but don't get the ones that are at the cheapest, spend at least £28-30 (whatever that is in your currency), the best in the traditional range is Umeshoin which is sinking grade Vietnamese aloeswood, they cost me £90-95 for 150 14cm/5.51inch sticks.

It may be cheaper to order them from the biggest UK (Japanese mainly) incense sticks vendor, lotuszenincense: https://lotuszenincense.co.uk/collections/traditional-incense-by-gyokushodo
 
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-Renton- said:
Oh no, I would NOT spend that much money on them. I can get them here for £55 for a 11cm box of 20 sticks, so the price I can get them at (even though isn't a full 35 stick box and they are a little shorter than the 18cm sticks, but a lot of Japanese incense are around 11-14cm anyway that I am used to) they are definitely worth it.
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The ones I was looking at were the 17 cm, 35 sticks a box version. So can come up with a price/cm to compare apples to apples,

Version I mentioned: 419 CAD / 17 cm*35 sticks = 0.7 CAD/cm
Version you mentioned: 98.75 CAD (55 GBP to CAD) / 11 cm * 20 sticks = 0.45 CAD/cm

So you do get them for a lot cheaper! Nice!
 
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