Jeomra’s – Natur pur – Patchouli

Georg Huber (Jeomra) became aware of me on Instagram in mid-2023 and offered me samples of their entire line of in-house incense sticks, which of course I accepted with pleasure.

Patchouli is one of the currently 10 varieties of the “Natur pur” (pure nature) line. A sampler, which contains 2 sticks of each scent, is available for €26.90.
Patchouli is available from €10.90 for 10 sticks, there are also packs of 20 and 50. In the best case, this makes a unit price of around 84 cents. If you buy 10 sticks, you pay €1.10 per stick.
The burning time is given as 60-70 minutes.

Ingredients: Sandalwood powder (Indonesia), beech charcoal (Germany), benzoin resin (Vietnam), joss powder (Vietnam), German wild honey, patchouli (Pogostemon heyneanus) essential oil (Indonesia);
coating: patchouli leaf powder (Indonesia).

Jeomra’s Patchouli only uses patchouli essential oil (apart from the powder coating on the outside), and that not from the common patchouli Pogostemon cablin (i.e. “Indian Patchouli”), but from Pogostemon heyneanus [DE], which is known as Javanese patchouli. This is my first conscious encounter with the scent of this type of patchouli, and I am very intrigued by it.

The scent of these Patchouli incense sticks has two faces. On the one hand, I find it to be unusually light and airy for patchouli, but at the same time it also has the intensely earthy character that you expect from patchouli. A very attractive dichotomy.
I smell the woody aspect of patchouli, which comes into its own when the smoke drifts out into the hallway. In the living room, where the stick burns, the benzoin is much more noticeable. Sometimes it even stands out a bit too strongly for me, even though I actually really like sweet patchouli scents.
I also notice that the scent is not entirely consistent. With one stick, the benzoin was a bit over-present at the beginning and the smell was almost caramel-like. A while later, I smelled the sandalwood very strongly, which I otherwise couldn’t consciously detect.
I find the fresh, somewhat minty smell of patchouli particularly clear in these incense sticks.

During the burn, the smell “happens” at the head and heart level. I have the impression that the composition is missing the actual patchouli herb – the solid part – which contains most of the deep, grounding aspect for me.
At the same time, Jeomra’s Patchouli have a unique selling point due to this unusual weighting. They are definitely more than just simple, oil-based incense sticks. They have character and complexity. 
My friend Max perceived the smell very differently than I did. Although he didn’t find the scent explicitly heavy, he absolutely couldn’t agree with my description of “airy”. For him, the scent creates a “temple atmosphere”, he said.

I’m really torn about Jeomra’s Patchouli. The scent is really great, the quality of the ingredients is noticeably top-notch, but I still can’t get over the feeling that the character isn’t quite rounded or that I’m missing something in it.
They are probably just not the right patchouli incense sticks for me. But they are still definitely worth a try for every patchouli lover.