A First Look at Bhagwan Incense

When Eugene of Bhagwan Incense first reached out offering samples I was hesitant to accept them; my experiences with Indian style incense at that point had been less than stellar. After Irene of rauchfahne.de sent me some very nice Indian sticks, however, my mind was opened, and I found myself keen to see what Bhagwan has to offer. Being an exporter rather than a manufacturer, Bhagwan’s product range is fairly broad, spanning from classic sandalwood sticks to modern fragrances like guava. Today I’ll start with my thoughts on some of those classic incense fragrances: agarwood and sandalwood. Agarwood # Absolute Oudh # Absolute Oudh is sweet, spicy, woody, and “masculine.” Baking spice notes almost remind me of a Japanese sweet agarwood stick, but the sweetness is really ramped up here and there’s no camphor lift. There is a vanillic aspect to this stick, which, coupled with the sweetness, evokes benzoin. There is also something of a Play-Doh note, a touch of anise in the room, and an…