Monsoon Incense – Benzoin Supreme
This pack was part of a generous selection of samples that Eugene Andrushchenko, owner of the Bhagwan and Monsoon Incense brands, sent me in mid-2024. At that time, the brand was still called Good Incense.
A 15g pack contains approximately 5 sticks and costs €2.95; €0.59 per piece. They’re 10″ (approximately 25cm) long and burn for a full 2 hours.
Eugene writes that benzoin resin is called “sambrani” in South India. I’d like to go into this term in more detail at the end.
Benzoin Supreme show a somewhat sooty flame upon lighting and produce a hefty dose of smoke, which isn’t unusual for resin-rich incense sticks, though. This definitely makes them unsuitable for small and enclosed spaces. These sticks need space and lots of fresh air, which makes them suited perfectly for outdoor use.
I also used them inside the house, but I’ve set them up in the hallway and let the scent drift through a connecting room to me in the living room; I have several windows open whilst doing this. This way, the dilution and scent intensity are just right for me.
Benzoin Supreme don’t have a pure benzoin smell, but one that’s familiar to me as a note from many other Indian incense sticks. The scent is sweet and balsamic, permeated by a powdery softness that comes out wonderfully, especially in dilution. There’s also a hint of florality that brings some lightness into the otherwise rather heavy scent.
Furthermore, I smell a tart, somewhat sour tone that I find from resins of the Shorea genus.
In the hallway, the smoke lingers and the smell is so dense that it shows some rather unpleasant notes, which are also noticeable shortly after lighting when you get the smoke a bit too directly in your nose:
Most strongly, I notice a petrol-like smell, which is similar to the note I find in some Nag Champa incense sticks. It creates associations with paint fumes, and in combination with the sweetness, it makes me think of shoe polish.
These notes might not sound particularly pleasant, but actually, in the right dilution, they contribute to the depth of the composition and give the scent more character.
Benzoin Supreme aren’t incense sticks I’d buy myself, but I’m sure they’ll suit the taste of many others who like intense scents of this kind.
The Term “Sambrani”
The smell of Benzoin Supreme reminds me in several ways of an incense material that’s often sold here as “loban”, or more rarely as “Calcutta block benzoin” (or just “block benzoin”). It’s a mixture of different resins, of which benzoin usually makes up the main ingredient. The resins are heated, then the mass is poured or pressed into block forms.
The term “loban”, as it’s used in international trade, is extremely confusing and often downright misleading. Actually, “loban” derives from “luban” or “al-luban”, which is the Arabic word for frankincense.
“Loban” should therefore actually mean frankincense (specifically, all frankincense varieties not native to India). However, the original meaning seems to be increasingly blurring, and so “loban” is now better understood as a kind of collective term for incense resins, or mixtures.
With “sambrani”, it’s practically the same. The term springs from the Indian language Tamil and has meanwhile been adopted into other Indian languages. It’s a collective term and can simply mean “incense resin”, but also specifically benzoin in some places.
It’s therefore not wrong that benzoin is called “sambrani” in southern India, but one shouldn’t draw the reverse conclusion and think that “sambrani” always means benzoin. “Sambrani” sometimes also means guggul, frankincense or other incense resins, as well as mixtures thereof.
A good example are “sambrani cups”: roughly shot glass-sized cups made from pressed charcoal, cow dung or another easily combustible material, filled with different resins.
If you search on platforms like Etsy or eBay for “loban” or “sambrani”, you could mistake the terms for synonyms; they’re often mentioned together in the description of various offerings. These are usually characteristically shaped chunks of resin that are coloured red, green, yellow or sometimes grey and have cream-coloured inclusions.
When encountering the terms “loban” or “sambrani” in trade, it’s always advisable to be particularly attentive. If you’re looking for a very specific resin, always familiarise yourself with the botanical names and be sceptical of trivial names.