Ullas – Agarveda

I got this opened pack of Agarveda from my friend Silver in 2024. You can find her review here.

In Germany, Agarveda is sold by Ephra World Shop, for example. The 8″ (about 20cm) long sticks cost €1.75 there for a 15g pack.

The raw smell of Agarveda is promising. It has a heavy sweetness with a slightly piercing shoe polish note; alongside that a hint of fruitiness, like you can find in some pipe tobaccos. It reminds me a little of cherry.

When burning, I first smell a rather unpleasant singed smell like of matches, but this dissipates as soon as the aroma spreads through the room.
The smell reminds me very vaguely of my beloved Parimal – Yatra, but only in so far as the balsamic resinousness is of a similar nature. Agarveda is noticeably tarter than Yatra and has a certain shoe polish note when burning as well, which I find slightly piercing. Apart from that, there is a rather faint chalky scent which only appears occasionally.

Once an Agarveda stick has burned down about a third, the association with shoe polish fades, and the sweet-balsamic notes become dominant, still accompanied by a general tartness.
Only rarely do I catch a trace of the cherry aroma that I find in the raw smell.

The character of Agarveda is dark, deep and accented with a heavy, balsamic sweetness, which is kept in balance by an aromatic-tart note.
I do find the scent quite attractive, but Agarveda doesn’t go beyond a good midfield.