I received a sample of this incense from Kenneth Cannata’s Yi-Xin Craft Incense studio. Ken is known in the incense world for being a student of KyaraZen, a famous incense maker from Singapore.
Unfortunately, these incense sticks are quite fragile and the stick arrived broken in several pieces. It was the only stick Kenneth sent to me that was broke during shipping.
Western red cedar is different then the white cedar used in most cedar incense formulations. It is supposedly less acrid then white cedar, but not as strong-scented as Tennessee red cedar.
Review
Of course, there is the obvious cedar scent, but its more then that. This is woody, sweet, spicy, and musky. Warm honey notes compliment spice notes similar to cumin. There seems to be some dry notes in there as well which almost remind me of burning catnip, but not in an unpleasant way.
The scent almost reminds me of some Tibetan incense sticks.
Since Western red cedar isn’t a scent commonly found in incense sticks, this was very interesting to try. The scent projects very well and I bet half a stick would be enough for most sessions.
If you’re interested in trying Western red cedar incense sticks, I doubt you’ll find one much better then this, but ask Ken to package them really well because they are rather fragile.
Have you tried Yi-Xin Craft Incense Western Red Cedar incense sticks?
Let us know what you thought about them in the comment section below!
