Temple Of Incense: Frankincense, Myrrh
I received a sample stick of each of these two TOI fragrances from Sascha (Indiaroma.de), out of his private collection (which, coincidentally, can both be found in his shop as well).
Frankincense
A box of Frankincense, containing 20 sticks, cost £12 in the TOI shop, while Indiaroma sells them for €14. The stick is approximately 9″ or 23cm long.
Temple Of Incense does not mention which frankincense is used in these sticks.
In terms of smell, they are intensely resinous, with a rather dry, slightly tart character. At the same time, the scent also has a citrusy freshness. The smell is natural and closely resembles what one would expect when burning frankincense on charcoal. Unfortunately, I sometimes pick up the smell of the charcoal used in these incense sticks as well.
Especially in the raw smell, I perceive a delicate floral note, but it is so subtle that I wonder if it might be just a cross-contamination of the other samples I’ve stored with this stick. However, I still can’t shake off this impression when burning them; there is a certain floral tone hidden within.
It’s a pity that the sticks keep going out. Sascha told me that unfortunately, this is the case with all of them. He said they need a constant breeze to keep burning. I then directed my mini fan at the stick, but that didn’t help either. Finally, I tried the “upside-down trick“, and that worked out.
Apart from the burning problem, I find these Frankincense sticks not quite on par with the old versions of the Jeomra Frankincense sticks, where you couldn’t smell the charcoal, and they had a bit more character. They don’t come even close to the revised versions. (But these also cost almost twice as much.) I also prefer the Heritage Oman Frankincense Sticks, which don’t contain charcoal at all.
They’re not bad frankincense sticks; I just find them somewhat generic.
Myrrh
TOI states that these sticks contain myrrh and a subtle blend of other resins. They are Dry Masala, although I’ll categorize them as resin incense sticks as well, as you can see some bubbling behind the ember.
The burning time is stated as 45 minutes. A box contains 20 incense sticks. They cost £14 in the TOI shop, while Indiaroma sells them for €17. The sticks seem to vary in length by about 2cm (or an inch).
The very first whiff after lighting it reminds me slightly of an ashtray; a smell that I’m familiar with from my own attempts to make myrrh incense sticks. However, this quickly dissipates, giving way to a distinct sweetness that appears fruity. Dried fruits or carob come to mind.
The scent has a slightly tart aspect, but is primarily balsamic and soft.
According to ORS, these are the same incense sticks that were sold under the Happy Hari brand as King of Myrrh. I had a tiny bit left from my Padma Store sample and used it to compare:
Contrasting with the certainly younger sticks from TOI, I notice a resinous-fresh note in the King of Myrrh sample that seems to have completely gone unnoticed by me before. They smell somewhat lighter, brighter. It seems to me as if they could contain a bit of frankincense. Returning to Myrrh from TOI, I notice a hint of this resinous note in them as well.
Overall, they are sweeter, perhaps somewhat milder, and they appear calmer in a way. However, the type of sweetness is identical in both and reminds me of carob, which is used in powdered form as a substitute for cocoa.
I slightly prefer the HH variant, which is (still) sold by Padma Store, but I have to say that for me, the myrrh character is more pronounced in the current TOI version. It’s of course possible that this varies somewhat from batch to batch.
Temple Of Incense – Myrrh are pleasantly soft-smelling, sweet myrrh incense sticks. An accessible scent for those who have difficulty with the common bitterness of myrrh resin.