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Nathan Upchurch 2024-07-31 10:48:24 -05:00
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content/blog/a-breakthrough-incense-blend.md
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@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ I wrote two letters today, sealing each into a cotton envelope alongside a color
*A quick note:
You can [see everything I've written on incense here,](../../tags/incense/) or [subscribe to just incense posts via RSS.](../../feeds/incense.xml)*
*Correction: When this article was first published, I wrongly attributed the suggestion that Yi-Xin's "Heart of Lavender" isn't likely to use lavender essential oil to Irene of [rauchfahne.de](https://blog.rauchfahne.de/en/) who has since let me know that it wasn't her who suggested this.*
---
[![An uncapped fountain pen on top of a pretty, gold-foiled pad of paper beside some envelopes with stamps featuring coffee drinks on them.](/img/sending-incense-samples.webp "If you're going to snail-mail, you might as well do it in style.")](/img/sending-incense-samples.webp)
@ -37,7 +39,7 @@ He also hints at one of these special techniques:
>Firstly, the base ingredient is a specially processed Stanford Cedar material that integrated lavender in a very unique way
Whatever Ken is doing to those ingredients, it produces a beautiful lavender stick which somehow circumvents the sharpness he describes altogether. It's practically *juicy* — floral, but fruity and tart like a plum. As an incense maker, how you could know that this is possible and *not* try to do it is beyond me, so I came up with an idea and tested my hypothesis in *Grand Dame.* The best guess I could muster as to how he'd managed to avoid that familiar scent of burning plant material that is usually part and parcel of, well, burning plant material, was that he must have either omitted it entirely or significantly reduced the quantity used. If I recall, Irene of [rauchfahne.de](https://blog.rauchfahne.de/en/) mentioned to me at one point that *Heart of Lavender* didn't strike her as containing any significant quantity of essential oil, and I had forgotten that hydrosols exist, which left me with the idea that perhaps Ken had used a tincture.
Whatever Ken is doing to those ingredients, it produces a beautiful lavender stick which somehow circumvents the sharpness he describes altogether. It's practically *juicy* — floral, but fruity and tart like a plum. As an incense maker, how you could know that this is possible and *not* try to do it is beyond me, so I came up with an idea and tested my hypothesis in *Grand Dame.* The best guess I could muster as to how he'd managed to avoid that familiar scent of burning plant material that is usually part and parcel of, well, burning plant material, was that he must have either omitted it entirely or significantly reduced the quantity used. If I recall, someone mentioned to me at one point that *Heart of Lavender* didn't strike them as containing any significant quantity of essential oil, and I had forgotten that hydrosols exist, which left me with the idea that perhaps Ken had used a tincture.
I started out by soaking whole dried lavender flowers in [Pisco,](https://catanpisco.com/) which smelled incredible. I soon did a little reading on tinctures, however, and found that I was going about it all wrong. The proof of the Pisco and the ratio of flowers to Pisco were both too low, and I'd need to wait several weeks to see how my tincture had turned out in any case. At this point, I bought an ounce of lavender tincture to experiment with. I combined the entire bottle with six grams of stunning powdered [Juniperus Virginiana from The World Makes Scents;](https://theworldmakesscents.com/products/premium-super-fine-red-cedar-powder-juniperus-virginiana) after stirring well and letting the mixture sit for twenty-four hours, I removed the lid from the jar and allowed the liquid to evaporate. The result of a quick burn test was thrilling: the trail of cedar produced the beautiful, fruity lavender fragrance that I'd hoped for.
@ -52,4 +54,4 @@ Here is a comparison between *Grand Dame* and *Heart of Lavender*:
[![The two sticks seen through a printer's loupe. Mine is significantly lighter in color.](/img/incense-stick-comparison.webp "Left: Grand Dame; Right: Heart of Lavender. Quite a difference. ")](/img/incense-stick-comparison.webp)
With that, while it produces a lovely stick, I think my tincture idea is out of the window. Knowing that Ken was taught by [Kyarazen,](https://www.kyarazen.com/) who writes on traditional Chinese incense techniques as does his student [Dr. Incense,](https://dr-incense.com/) I wonder whether the cedar and lavender might have been processed by [steaming](https://dr-incense.com/blogs/dr-incense-blog/traditional-processing-of-aloeswood) them together. At any rate, despite my disappointment at failing to discover how Ken of Yi-Xin made his lavender incense so good, I did manage to find a way of achieving a similar result. It continues to be an interesting line of enquiry as tinctures are expensive, even when you make them yourself, so I'd be grateful to discover a more frugal alternative. I've also started some more tinctures to play with, one with osmanthus and another using jasmine. I'll let you know how those work out.
With that, while it produces a lovely stick, I think my tincture idea is out of the window. Knowing that Ken was taught by [Kyarazen,](https://www.kyarazen.com/) who writes on traditional Chinese incense techniques as does his student [Dr. Incense,](https://dr-incense.com/) I wonder whether the cedar and lavender might have been processed by [steaming](https://dr-incense.com/blogs/dr-incense-blog/traditional-processing-of-aloeswood) them together. At any rate, despite my disappointment at failing to discover how Ken of Yi-Xin made his lavender incense so good, I did manage to find a way of achieving a similar result, and I'm keen to hear what some of my fellow incense-heads think providing those samples arrive in good condition. It continues to be an interesting line of enquiry as tinctures are expensive, even when you make them yourself, so I'd be grateful to discover a more frugal alternative. I've also started some more tinctures to play with, one with osmanthus and another using jasmine. I'll let you know how those work out.