Hand-Made in Nepal / Himalayan Flower – Agarwood

Another pack of the incense sticks in the Lokta paper envelopes, “Decorated with Himalayan Flower”. I bought them second hand on Kleinanzeigen. The pack contains 10 extruded dry masala sticks. The regular price is around €4.

It was clear to me that these Agarwood incense sticks would hardly smell of agarwood and anyone who’s expecting something different when buying them would also be disappointed.
However, I don’t think they’re really terrible; assuming you like more or less aromatic wood smoke smells. The smell is quite deep, rather dark, tart, but it is not harsh or pungent.
After the third or fourth try, I started to notice a vague cologne note in the scent. I suspect that this is supposed to resemble agarwood. Oh, well.

With the stick that I burned for review, I noticed that the bamboo splint continued to smoulder after the end of the dough application, and for quite a long time.
According to an Indian acquaintance of mine, who makes incense sticks himself and worked with saltpetre solution when he started out, says that this is an indication of its presence. Dissolved saltpetre may go directly into the dough, but as far as I know, sometimes only the bamboo splints are dipped in it.
In any case, I couldn’t smell it, and there was nothing unusual about the burning behaviour otherwise.

In my opinion, Agarwood is by no means worth the price and if you want to avoid such chemicals, you should better avoid the brand as a whole.