Balaji – Botanical Garden

These samples come from a generous package that my friend Silver sent me from India at the beginning of 2024.

Whilst Balaji is well represented in Germany, I’ve searched in vain for the Botanical Garden variety.
In Balaji’s shop, the box with 10 sticks costs ₹250 (~ €2.40) and the one with 25 is available for ₹425 (€4.15).
Aavyaa – a shop with international delivery has 3 pack sizes in their range: 10 sticks (₹250); 25 sticks (₹500) and a box with 250g.
Judging by the weight of my samples, that should correspond to about 145 sticks. It costs ₹2100; approx. €20.50.

The sticks are 9″ (about 23cm) long. At first glance they seem extruded, but actually, they’re very evenly hand-rolled.

Balaji describes the fragrance of Botanical Garden as a ‘perfectly blended floral bouquet with notes of rose, jasmine, lily and many more’.

The raw scent of these intensely fragrant sticks reminds me of some of the bakhoors reviewed early this year, which contain bergamot. It’s a pungent freshness, accompanied by indistinct floral notes; the fragrance is also soapy.

Lit, Botanical Garden smell notably greener. It’s a leafy, grassy and slightly herbaceously fresh fragrance, in which something of the tart citrus freshness of bergamot still resonates.
I can recognise the jasmine note, which is also of quite a fresh and green nature. Additionally, I pick up a faintly pungent spiciness that reminds me a bit of cloves.

Unfortunately, I still find the fragrance soapy and, moreover, too potent. I’ve only ever let about three centimetres of the stick burn at a time because the smell became too intense for me, despite I kept a window and the door open.
Even with this small amount burnt, the after-smell lasts for more than 2 hours and is floral and fresh.

Botanical Garden aren’t for me, but I think there are people who’ll be very keen on this incense. Such green fragrances are rather rare to find.