Cake Bakhoor (Rymer Shop)

These samples are part of a package my friend Povilas put together for me. He purchased them at Rymer, along with two other bakhoors, of which he also shared samples with me.

Rymer sells all their bakhoors in simple tin containers, which I, personally, appreciate. They also show the contents in their product pictures. As beautiful as some of the fancy bakhoor jars and containers are, one often wonders whether you’re paying more for the packaging than the actual product.
Currently, I see 18 different bakhoor varieties of Rymer’s assortment, priced between €8.29 and €20.79 for 25g each.
Rymer states that their bakhoors are local, Omani products, primarily made for personal use, either at home or in small workshops, mostly by women.

I think Cake Bakhoor is a dukhoon bakhoor because it consists of relatively finely ground material. Unlike other dukhoons I’ve had so far, this one is really hard, whilst the others, non-loose dukhoons could be broken apart relatively easily and were crumbly. With Cake Bakhoor, it takes a certain effort to break off a piece.

Cake Bakhoor is considerably more scent-intensive than the other 3 varieties from Rymer that I’ve tried.

I’ve used Cake Bakhoor quite a few times during the last couple of weeks, mostly on tealight incense warmers, both in my living room and in the bathroom. I’ve tried different things: windows open or closed, also burnt it on charcoal. Nevertheless, I can’t quite make sense of the smell and reading the description doesn’t make it better either…

For me, the smell is just indefinably perfumey. I recognise a certain florality and a faint sweetness, with hints of amber and musk. There’s something herbaceous in the raw scent that reminded me – of all things – of pizza sauce. At some point, I called this note ‘thyme’ in my notes, but I’m not entirely happy with that.
Overall, I find the smell tends towards soapy.

The scent experience when burning on charcoal was relatively similar to the fragrance on the warmer, but considerably more short-lived.
What struck me the most is that the herbaceous-green aspect seemed to come out more strongly with the charcoal, and also brought a slight bitterness. When most of the perfume had dissipated, a slightly burnt smell of sugar and wood came through.

Cake Bakhoor isn’t bad. I find nothing wrong with it; it just doesn’t suit my taste.

Note about Rymer:

Although the ordering process was somewhat complicated, I really wanted to order from Rymer because I’m really impressed with their range. Not only when it comes to incense sticks but also loose incense.
The shop’s system only allows orders within the Czech Republic and Slovakia, so I asked if they would also ship to other EU countries, which they were happy to do upon request.
Michael Rymer, the owner, was very helpful and responsive throughout the process (in English). I was told to enter my real address in the note field at checkout and select the Czech Republic and 54401 as the postal code to complete the order.
Payment options include bank transfer and a few others – no PayPal.
A while after receiving the automated invoice, I was sent a second invoice with the actual shipping costs. Originally, shipping was supposed to cost €20 – which I found quite high but accepted nonetheless. Later, Mr. Rymer sent me another email informing me that it had cost less than expected and offered me a €6 refund. So, the actual shipping costs were €14, which was roughly what I had expected.
He could have just said nothing and kept the money, but he didn’t, and I think that’s very decent.