Minorien – Fu-In: Aloeswood and Kyara
These two samples come from two of my friends and fellow incense exchange partners: Sebastian and Povilas.
As with the Sandalwood variant from this line, there’s no source for these two in Germany.
The first to sell them in Europe, as far as I know, were Lotus Zen Incense in England. I don’t know if they’re the only ones. With them, you pay £67.59 for a box of Aloeswood with about 135 sticks.
The Kyara variant costs £106.76 (Kyara being particularly high-quality aloeswood), with the box containing only 100 sticks. There are other pack sizes as well, though some of those are sold out at Lotus Zen.
In my opinion, the best option for buying Fu-In incense sticks is the Japanese shop Wa no Kaori. It ships directly from Japan, and its prices are only a few euros above the Japanese domestic market price. Compared to prices in Europe or America, that’s usually only half as much, often even close to just a third.
So, with them, Aloeswood in the same box size costs only €25.95, and every pack size is available: from the 10-stick sample up to the large pack with 1280 sticks.
The 100-sticks Kyara box costs €37.95.
On top of that come shipping, customs fees and import tax, but even with those, the price is still considerably cheaper.
The regular length of the Fu-In sticks is 13.5cm, with a burn time of about 30 minutes. There are shorter and longer versions available.
You might notice spots on the sticks in the images of both varieties; with Aloeswood they’re a good bit more obvious and appeared while I had them in storage. According to Minorien, this is caused by natural oils in the woods.
Aloeswood
The Aloeswood sample dates back to before I even started this blog. Sebastian sent it to me during our very first incense exchange; 6 sticks.
Aloeswood must have been my first encounter with agarwood incense sticks. Back then I burned 1-2 of them, but had the feeling I couldn’t quite figure out or understand the smell. So I put the remaining ones into storage until I’d have more context; and then I forgot about them for a long time.
From the sparse notes I made back then, I know the smell reminded me strongly of patchouli: a dark tone like damp earth. I still pick up on this smell, especially in the raw sticks. Alongside that there’s a deep woodiness and a slightly piercing note, which back then reminded me of varnish.
Smelling the sticks is like sticking your head into an antique wooden cabinet.
The lit sticks come very close to the raw smell, though the earthy aspect, and with it the patchouli association, recedes partially into the background. In its place is now a full agarwood smell that I find very typical. Between the two aspects stands the slightly piercing, dark-green, spicy agarwood note as a bridge, leading from dark earthiness to deep, woody and balsamic notes.
The more the scent is diluted, the more clearly the balsamic aspect comes forward and opens up into a subtle sweetness.
The after-smell lingers for quite a while and regains more of the spicy aspect over time.
I haven’t read a mention of patchouli in any other review; so this association seems to be more of a me-thing. Still, I could imagine that Aloeswood might go down especially well with patchouli fans like me because of it.
Kyara
Kyara doesn’t give me a patchouli association. The raw smell, though, has the same slightly varnish-like, piercing note, which here is even more intense. Overall the smell feels denser and more concentrated.
The lit sticks have a rich agarwood smell, which from the start comes across as more balsamic or resin-rich than the cheaper Aloeswood. The woodiness that builds up feels noticeably less dry.
Apart from the strongly earthy aspect of Aloeswood, which is almost entirely absent here, I find the smell of the two fairly similar, except that in Kyara it comes across as more potent, more concentrated and purer. Of almost all the agarwood aspects present in both varieties, there’s simply more in Kyara: more of the slightly piercing spiciness, more depth and more of the balsamic softness.
The latter benefits strongly from good ventilation or plenty of room to unfold in. The sweetness, though, seems minimally stronger to me in Aloeswood than in these.
In the after-smell, Kyara is likewise similar to Aloeswood, just with a bit more agarwood oomph.
Conclusion
Ignoring the absurd European prices, I’d say that both Fu-In Aloeswood and Kyara are excellent agarwood incense sticks in the (semi-)daily class.
The cost-to-quality ratio is excellent.
Although I can certainly appreciate the deep, rich agarwood smell of Kyara, I tend to prefer Aloeswood, which, admittedly, is influenced to a certain degree by Kyara‘s significantly higher price.
Still, it’s above all the dark, earthy character of Aloeswood that I find so appealing, and that makes it more interesting to me.