Gonesh: Cedarwood, Cherry Blossom, Black Cherry, Nag Champa
Steve sent me these Gonesh samples.
Gonesh incense sticks aren’t something I’d buy myself, but since it’s a very popular brand in the category of dipped incense on the American market, I was nevertheless curious for them and am glad to have the opportunity to try some and form my own opinion.
Gonesh is a Chicago-based brand that’s existed since 1923. On the pages of the official Gonesh Incense shop, one finds the information that the company was originally founded by a Lithuanian immigrant family, in whose possession it remained until 1980.
Now, the brand belongs to Genie Co. though; a company of the Nippon Kodo group. I don’t know whether this has been the case since 1980.
Gonesh make quite a fuss about how supposedly unique their incense sticks are. In his overview article, Steve has already gone into detail regarding their ‘unique charcoal formulation’, which they’ve trademarked as HighCharcoal™. (You’ll also find links to his reviews there.)
They furthermore claim: ‘our bamboo sticks are shaved to the smallest possible diameter’.
A statement I can instantly refute with this image:
What amazes me is that Nippon Kodo themselves sell incense sticks in the Herb & Earth line that have bamboo splints just as thin as the one shown above by Aromandise, which I’ve used for comparison. (I didn’t have any of the Herb & Earth sticks to hand.)
So the parent company itself would have access to a source for thinner sticks.
At the Gonesh shop, the packets of the Extra Rich line cost $4.
In Germany, I’ve found a single source that sells them at reasonable prices: a shop called ‘deine Räucherwelt‘ sells them for €3.90. However, they don’t offer all the fragrances reviewed here.
One pack contains 20 sticks that are 10″ (approximately 24.5cm) long. I find information on burning time of 45 to 50 minutes.
Cedarwood
It must have been about 20 years ago that I bought a set of fragrance oils (probably by the brand Pajoma) at the German drugstore chain Müller. I remember that one of them, ‘cedarwood’, had a cloyingly sweet smell that I found obtrusive. These sticks abruptly brought back the memory of it.
The smell only reminds me very vaguely of real cedarwood or its essential oil; however, one must acknowledge that there are several different trees that are informally called cedars but botanically aren’t. I’m not familiar with all of them.
The fragrance is, as implied before, relatively sweet, but contains a certain woody component.
In the after-smell, it becomes a little sweeter and almost fruity, albeit in a somewhat artificial way.
I don’t consider the fragrance of Cedarwood fundamentally bad, it’s just absolutely not my thing.
Cherry Blossom
Cherry blossoms are the symbol of spring in Japan.
The raw smell is floral, with a prominent note of cloves.
When lit, the stick smells considerably more floral. It’s a delicate, friendly and youthful fragrance.
After about half of the stick, I notice that the fragrance filling the room becomes moderately obtrusive, and the clove smell comes to the fore again
In the door to the adjacent hallway, where the smell can dilute somewhat better, it’s still pleasant, though.
Black Cherry
Black Cherry smell of cherry bubblegum when unlit, with an intense, artificial fruitiness and acidity.
When lit, I immediately find the smell rather dull and it smells oddly burnt. A little of the fruitiness is retained, but the fragrance also reminds me of hot plastic.
Nag Champa
Charcoal-based Nag Champa simply don’t seem to work for me. The fragrance is floral, but there’s nothing that would make me think of Nag Champa incense in particular.
The smell is soft, florally sweet and settled somewhere between powdery and creamy. After about half the stick, a certain sandalwood perfume comes through, which is probably responsible for the creaminess of the fragrance.
Not unpleasant, but quite mundane.
Conclusion
Gonesh have their fans and their haters, and I think both have their justified reasons.
There are considerably worse dipped incense sticks than those made by Gonesh, and the fact that I don’t perceive any off-notes from the charcoal (such as an unpleasant soot smell) or from the bamboo stick speaks for them. Also, that they don’t show an aggressive, sooty flame upon lighting.
The fragrances are mostly ok, initially even relatively attractive, even though I’ve found all of them a little obtrusive and duller smelling after about half the stick had burned down. (I tried them all one after another, with some pause in between; on a moderately warm summer day with the window wide open.)
In general, I find the fragrances quite artificial and rather one-dimensional.
As I noticed with the dipped sticks by Auroshikha, the Gonesh sticks trigger a slight scratchiness in my throat as well.
Gonesh incense sticks may be among the higher quality ones within the dipped incense category; however, I can’t help but count myself to those who think that dipped incenses overall tend to be inferior.
But tastes differ, and so people who typically like these types of fragrances, will also rate their quality as higher.