One Year of Rauchfahne – Quo Vadis?

So Rauchfahne is already a year old. Wow – that was quick!

The categories are slowly filling and expanding.
Some small changes in the structure have been made: There is now additional sorting by brand; The keywords have been thinned out a bit, Rauchfahne has been given a thumbnail pic.

As I have gained more experience, trying new incense sticks and writing reviews, I have found that some incense sticks simply do not fit “in the same box” as most others. They are simply too different to compare. I’m not even talking about categories as fundamentally different as Indian vs. Japanese. The types of ingredients used alone create wholly different products. For an incense stick whose scent seems to be based almost entirely on oils or some kind of “perfume”, a smoky note is a flaw for me. For an incense stick that is made purely from wood and other raw ingredients, a smoky note is part of the scent profile…
There are cases where I clearly notice that incense sticks are of high-quality and very natural, but I still rate them relatively low because they simply don’t suit my taste. The opposite is also possible: It is obviously produced absolutely cheaply, but unfortunately, it still smells great.
In both cases, it feels unfair, even downright misleading, to reduce it to a number and thus lump it together.
I haven’t made a final decision yet as to whether I want to give up the rating system completely. I initially really liked its simplicity and apparent clarity.
It will probably take some trial and error to find the best concept.
At least for now, I will probably keep the ratings for the very typical Indian incense sticks.

I would have liked to write more about homemade incense recently, but that failed partly due to a lack of time and partly due to a lack of clarity about the exact format.
But the plan still exists. I would also like to start writing portraits of individual incense substances, but that is just as time-consuming, not least because I value thorough research.

In any case, there will be a bunch of new incense stick reviews this year too!
I have a stack of incense packages that I have not even tried once yet, and a veritable mountain of samples that I’ve been sent from various people. Some of them are even homemade, which makes me particularly excited. At this point, I would like to send out a big “Thank you!” to the Netherlands, France, England, Canada and the USA, to all my incense exchange partners and to the lovely people who sent me something just for the sake of sharing!
What a wonderful experience! 😀
I’m going to take a break from exchanging (and buying) incense for now to focus on what I already have – and there’s a lot! :’D

To give a small outlook, the list includes: Elbenzauber, Ispalla, more Holy Smokes, a pair of Green Tree, Fiore D’Oriente;
as well as samples from Aromandise, Jiri & Friends, Ramakrishna’s, Milo’s Temple, Heera, Koya’s, lots of Mother’s – and many, many more.

I’m eager to try out all the great new things and share my thoughts here!