Men Tsee Khang, the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute, are based in Dharamsala, India and produce a few different formulations of traditional Tibetan incense sticks.
Sorig is one of their more popular incense offerings.
It is important to note that these incense sticks are actually made in India, and not Tibet.
This box of incense has 3 bundles of 20 sticks, for a total of 60 sticks.
This traditional incense formulation includes ingredients such as:
Carthamus tinctorius (safflower), Rhododendron sp., Juniperus sp. (juniper), Picrorhiza kurroa (kutki), Rosa sativus (rose), Selinum wallichinum (milk parsley), Dracocephalum tanguticum (dragonhead), Artemisia sp. (wormwood, mugwort or sagebrush) and Santalum album (Indian sandalwood).
Review
These are light brown incense sticks.
They are pretty thick in size, and not uniform in appearance.
As with most Tibetan-styled incense sticks, these have primarily an earthy aroma. Waves of herbal, grassy, and berry tones lighten up the stage. The juniper addition is obvious. There are some floral notes as well. They mention rose in the ingredient list, but it seems more complex then that.
When you first light it, there is a bit of a dryness to it, but it seems to mellow out in a few minutes. A slight burning smell does linger in the background, but it doesn’t overpower the scent.
Considering these are a low-priced Tibetan-style incense, I think this smells decent. That being said, they lack the potency and complexity of some higher-end Tibetan incense varieties.
