nathanupchurch.com/content/blog/gourmand-sandalwood-incense-a-perplexing-failure.md

title	description	date	tags	synopsis	imageURL	imageAlt	mastodon_id
A Perplexing Failure	Failing to make the most delicious batch of incense ever.	2024-04-13	Incense Incense Making Incense Builds (Recipes)	My grand designs crumble as I fail to make the most delicious batch of incense ever devised.	/img/_DSC0079_copy.avif	A small pile of short smooth brown incense sticks on a piece of MDF.	112266582201922869

This January, I had grand visions for a sweet, gourmand batch of incense sticks. I'd start with a creamy base of sandalwood, combine it with plenty of guggul resin for that touch of caramel, a dash of warm cinnamon, and a sprinkling of sweet, vanillic tonka bean; these things were going to smell like dessert, like baking cookies, like your high-school English teacher's classroom when her most cloyingly sweet scented candle had been burning for the past four hours.

Things seemed to be going well while making the sticks; the dough smelled incredible, and extrusion was a dream — long, straight noodles that could be manipulated without breaking came one after another. I didn't sense that something might be wrong until I saw the sticks after they'd dried overnight, when I noticed that they were very smooth, compact, and hard. They didn't burn, either, which isn't necessarily the death-knell for a batch of incense sticks, but neither is it a good sign.

It's now three months since the sticks were extruded; they haven't shown any signs of improvement, and I'm left scratching my head. The ingredient ratios in the build I used were based on those of a successful batch; by all estimations, this batch had everything it needed to combust! It may or may not smell nice, but surely, I thought, the batch will burn! Alas, my hubris was met with disappointment. Here's the build I used:

Ingredient	Grams	% of Build
Tonka Bean	0.3	5%
Cinnamon	0.75	11%
Guggul Resin	1.5	23%
Sandalwood	3	46%
Joss Powder (Litsea Glutinosa)	1	15%

My best guess as to why this build didn't work out has to do with the cinnamon. I know that some cinnamon varieties are mucilaginous, producing a mucilage (plant slime), when mixed with water. Knowing that gum binders, such as xanthan gum, can cause combustion issues in incense when used in higher concentrations, I suspect that the combination of 15% joss powder plus another 11% of the mucilaginous cinnamon somehow bound the sticks too tightly, preventing combustion.

Hypotheses aside, I may never know why exactly this build failed. It's always a shame when a batch turns out to be a complete flop after you've put so much time into carefully grinding and sifting precious aromatics, then kneading, extruding and drying neat little noodles of incense — waiting weeks or months to see whether your hopes for them have come to fruition. But all is not lost after all: when I break up the sticks into small pieces and put them on my mini circuit board, erm, incense heater, the fragrance is everything I had thought it might be. I'll content myself with that as I wait for yesterday's batch of rose and myrrh to cure.