There has been a lot of buzz lately about the Yi-Xin Craft Incense and Tea Studio.
Ken Cannata is the man behind this operation and is known within the incense community for being a student of KyaraZen, an incense and tea enthusiast from Singapore who is known for recreating incense formulations based upon ancient texts.
Ken Cannata was nice enough to send me samples of his recent batch of incense sticks so that I may review them on this website. Normally, when ordering his incense, you would receive prettier packaging then what is shown in the photo.
The first incense stick I will be trying is called Devadaru Rose. Devadaru is a sanskrit term which refers to the Cedrus deodara tree, and is also a Buddhist term with significant symbology.
The ingredients in Devadaru rose incense sticks are: Fermented Stanford cedar, Vietnamese agarwood, Boswellia sacra frankincense and Damascus Rose absolute.
You can smell the Damascus rose absolute right off the incense stick.
Review
This is an interesting incense stick with a very unique scent profile.
The first thing I smelled was frankincense and rose. This fragrance combination is very popular in the Middle East, and for good reason, because they go very well together. The citrus-musk and rose elements seem to intertwine and fly together, while occasionally showing some distance. Underneath the hood, the Vietnamese agarwood provides depth, while the fermented Standford cedar exhibits intriguing cooling sensations.
The fermentation process seems to have brought out some interesting qualities. There is still some woodiness in the fermented cedar, but it seems muted, while some of the other elements seem elevated.
I could see this going extremely well with a spring-harvest Tie Guan Yin oolong tea. The two aromas would complement each other perfectly.
A very lovely incense formulation.
Have you tried Yi-Xing Craft Incense Devadaru incense sticks?
Let us know what you thought about them in the comment section below!
