The thing with ASO sticks is that they are generally thicker and burn a bit longer. I also tend to think they are more "homemade". Ken's sticks are fabulous but wish he went back to offering 5g tubes again....
Dr incense sticks I also really like - bare in mind that with all of these guys, if you are looking for purely Agarwood sticks and minimal blends, I think you are getting more bang for your buck that with the Japanese majors. You aren't paying for the same level of overhead with smaller vendors so I'd like to think you are getting a better deal - both better materials, more transparency, and lower cost.
Having done some exploring I've seen a few Chinese vendors specialiZing in hq sticks and bulk production to sell b2b as whitelabeled product. I don't think sticks are that expensive to make - no one is grinding up amazing wood you'd otherwise throw on your subitism and making sticks - with the exception of rasoul here lol who is a madman! (In a good way). A financial decision has to be in place whereby they realize they can make more money grinding up a certain wood to make sticks than they could by selling it as wood alone.
