How to Buy Incense
Incense is perhaps to most natural way to provide scent for your home or workspace. Unlike the kind of commercial air fresheners you might find in a grocery store that contain cancer causing chemicals, good quality incense is completely natural. Not only is this healthier, but it gives off a much more pleasing scent. Another advantage to incense is that it provides a much quicker effect than other air freshening methods, primarily because it is burnt, and smoke, by it's nature, tend to linger in the air much longer than a liquid air freshener. You needn't be concerned about your health being affected by the smoke, it's no more dangerous that barbecuing. Incense is come from all over the world, but by far the most common incense comes from either India or Japan. The differences between them are significant. Indian incense tends to have much stronger, more intense scents, with a heavy emphasis on floral and spice, while Japanese incense is usually more mellow. Another difference is that Indian incense is rolled onto a thin stick that can be stuck into a foundation, such as a plant pot, while Japanese incense is formed into firm cylinders, and always requires a stand/burner of some kind to support it. My personal preference is for Indian incense, and by far the best is made by the Shrinivas Sugandhalaya company of Bangalore. Their most famous scent is Nag Champa, which happens to be Bob Dylan's favorite, and mine. But they make literally hundreds of different scents. If you buy incense made by this company, you can be assured it will be of high quality. Be warned! There is a lot of crappy incense out there, cut with cheap chemical scents, do not buy this! Quality incense is cheap to begin with, so avoid all off brand products, and absolutely do not buy anything sold in grocery or dollar stores. Good places to look for incense are new age bookstores, and flea markets. If you can't find any locally, there are several reliable online dealers, or you can try eBay. One type of incense you should avoid at all costs is called punk incense. It is made by dipping punk sticks, which are designed to light fireworks, into fragrance oils. This is awful stuff that will create foul black smoke, and never smell good. Beware of anything marketed as "hand dipped", you can be certain it is in reality punk incense. It is essential scented sawdust and glue. DO NOT BUY IT!
