Damodhar & Co. – Sri Sai Flora (Fluxo Incense)
Sri Sai Flora is basically infamous, and opinions on them are as divided as on very few other incense sticks. This alone made me curious about them. In April 2023, I found an offer on Kleinanzeigen, where these and a single pack of NGR – Nag Champa were being sold, and I took the opportunity.
Sri Sai Flora is produced by Damodhar & Co. in Bangalore and distributed by Tejjas Incense Pvt. Ltd., also based in Bangalore.
I believe there are several different packaging sizes available, and this one contains 25g, which corresponded to 9 sticks. At Ephra World, such a pack costs €2.20.
A Sri Sai Flora stick weighs about 2.8g.
Sri Sai Flora is by far the most intense incense I have come across so far. Besides their intensity in scent, they are also extremely smoky (which is why I used them to shoot the photos that serve as the header background for the blog).
Scent-wise, they are extremely musky to me, and even Max’s firs reaction to encountering them was to simply exclaim “Musk!” in his deepest voice.
This animalic smell is accompanied by an intense toilet puck odour and another note that I find very unpleasant, which reminds me of mothballs.
Unfortunately, Sri Sai Flora is simply too obtrusive and unpleasant for me, even outdoors.
While I can detect the floral aspect, everything in this scent is just overpowering and far too intense for me. I have had other ‘loud’ incense sticks, but Sri Sai Flora tops them all. These are Indian incense sticks, like on steroids and armed with a megaphone.
This was my first encounter with Fluxo incense sticks, and it initially put me off from exploring this style further.
I keep them, but only in case I feel like taking photos of the smoke again.
Here is Steve’s review of Sri Sai Flora on Incense in The Wind.
Classic incense – much copied. Until Satya’s Nah Champa, this was likely to be the most copied incense in India.
The style of incense that folks call “Flora” appear to start with this. At least, I haven’t found an earlier incense which has “Flora” in it’s name or description, and many incense which launched after this one and use the term “Flora”, have elements in either the packaging or the stick itself (or both) which are clearly based on this.
I think for anyone even remotely interested in incense (especially Indian incense), this is certainly one to try because it has been so influential, and so significant.
Intensity of aroma is certainly key to Sri Sai Flora, and that is not going to be enjoyed by everyone. This is a brash, noisy, summer in the city sort of incense. Indeed, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer In The City” would be an excellent soundtrack to the burning of a stick of Sri Sai Flora”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIHs15lejJw
Oh my, I haven’t heard that in ages. I prefer it without that incense, though! XD
The price of Sri Sai flora has changed drastically. Your pack looks like it’s very old as the price on your pack was 18rs, but now it’s 44 rs for 25 g. I have old Sri Sai Flora with me and I’ve compared it with my new pack and it smells the same. It is still my favorite incense.
😀 I knew you would leave a comment on this one.
Thanks for mentioning the increased price. Good to know, for everyone who likes them, that they still smell the same.
I know that Sri Sai Flora has its fans. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just not for me. 🙂
BTW. I noticed you found a way to incorporate the search function into your blog. Good thing.
Yup. It took my 4 months to figure out where to put a search bar on my bar lol.
Oh, what a pain. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of help with that. It was simply there from the beginning in my version…
Are no not, you gave me help when I asked you how can I add search bar, but me being a beginner to WordPress, it took me many minutes to find it, nd finally I found it.