Incense In The Wind

Radiating Incense In The Wind - a painting by Hai Linh Le

Tuesday 29 August 2017

Green Tree Californian White Sage




We were in Glastonbury this weekend, and - of course - had to visit a few mystic / head shops which usually have a small selection of incense packets. We enjoyed chatting to the friendly and laid back shopkeepers - Paul Eagle kept cropping up as a dwindling supply of his Happy Hari incense is still available in some shops, though most folks there were not yet aware he had died. The Yin Yang shop had some incense I'd not previously seen, so I bought this masala White Sage which is marketed by a Dutch distribution company called Green Tree based in Rotterdam they also have a Facebook page which links to their online shop (Facebook page inactive as of April 2021). They don't indicate who makes the incense for them, but it seems to be a fairly decent masala incense maker.

The delightful Yin Yang shop in Glastonbury

Green Tree White Sage has a warm and pleasant aroma on the stick. Quite sweet, honeyed, and yummy. There are sharp spicy wood tones, like fresh cut cedar and sandalwood, along with aniseed and vanilla, and some of the prickly notes I get from halmaddi. But it doesn't have the pungent, herby, fresh, minty, astringent, and savoury smell of sage.

On burning I get a pleasing aroma that strikes me as sweet and dreamy, with sexy, spicy, prickly notes of halmaddi, and the warmth of honey and vanilla, but nothing of the cleansing nature of sage. It's a very likeable proper job masala, but it doesn't come across to me as being representative of the fragrance after which it is named. There is also a lack of consistency in the sticks. Some are quite aromatic and dreamy, while others I've burnt are a little lighter in fragrant aroma, and reveal a little too much of the core charcoal underneath the fragrant masala. This reminds me of the Bhagvati Ppure Nagchampa range imported into the UK by Sifcon International - and it seems about the same level. While not nearly heavenly, this is pretty decent stuff.

I only paid £2.50 for a 15g box from Yin Yang; and it is available online from Higher Minds [2024 comment: shop no longer available] for £1.50, while Bhagvati's Ppure Nagchampa range can be bought from some local  hardware shops also for around  £1.50 for 15g.  Fairly decent incense needn't be expensive.


Date: Aug 2017    Score: 34
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Green Tree (distribution company)

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