Which Are the Most Incenselike Blends? ⚗️⛪🪔🥢💭

[rakovsky]

I don't think I can help, it could well all be subjective. Latakia never gave me any barnyard or hay smell or taste, while leather has always been there too (for me).

Gaslight and Squadron Leader are very different though, to the point that for me there's no point in putting them in the same sentence. Gaslight I didn't like at all, it was creosote and tar, while Squadron Leader was nice but quite light for my tastes. In general I have never been impressed with Gawith's use of Latakia.

To distinguish the smoky/woody characters between eg Latakia and Dark Fired Kentucky I'd say the first smells/tastes like a campfire that's died down, while the second like wood chopped and/or burning.

Sweet hay/grass/tea even are tastes I'd experience from light VAs. Manure and cattle piss I'd say is what I get from C&D's Perique bombs.

Karam,

Thanks for fleshing out more your sensations.

I got the barnstall flavor from about 1/3 of Latakia blends, especially Sutliff's Latakia, Star of the East, Wellauer's English blend, and two English house blends from a local B and M. Those two house blends were the first English blends I ever had, and the barnstall hay smell made me wonder if it was rotten and why people would like Englishes considering the smell.

When tobacco and hay break down in fermentation, they both produce a substance called "silage," and this may be part of the reason that those Latakia blends have a barnstall flavor for me. That barnstall variety of Latakia feels more fermented to me than plain VA tobacco, although I don't know if that's really the case.

When Latakia is very light in a blend like Walnut MATCH, it contributes a faint taste like a campfire that died down. Or perhaps it also has that campfire ember flavor as an aspect in stronger Lat. blends.

Another possible factor is that my palatte may be more sensitive and different than other people's. For instance, Northwoods' smoke smells bitter and soapy in part to me, but other people who smoked it in front of me only got rich flowery, chocolate notes from it, which is what I get from Northwoods' tin note. However, I know that the barnstall variety of Latakia smells stinky to some other smokers, so I'm not alone in it.

 

[senpai]

Smoking pure Izmir leaf is the most incense-like to my pallet.I love the stuff.

 

[rakovsky]

I want to follow up:
After making the OP I tried Moroccan Bazaar, and it was good and reminded me of figs and some kind of sweet hard candy gum drop taste, but I couldn't tell if it was specifically an incense smell.

SG Cannon Plug had a major fruit taste that I couldn't identify exactly, like orange or plum, and a comparably strong smell that reminded me a lot of East Asian or hippie-style incense sticks or incense cones like I got 25+ years ago in a mall shop.

C & D Byzantium was a little sweet and nutty, with a little dark Latakia horse hay side, but was not quite like incense.

RB Plug had a light prune smell, Black House had a molasses-like side, GH Balkan reminded me of BBQ a little bit, and GT Pesse Canoe Oriental Flake had a fruit syrup flavor that I couldn't identify exactly - maybe grape or fig. But none of these last 4 blends smelled quite like incense to me.

 

[Mrs. Pickles]

The hunt continues. Please keep us updated when you find the perfectly incense-like champion. I’m rooting for you!

 

[InWithBothFeet]

Smoking pure Izmir leaf is the most incense-like to my pallet.I love the stuff.

I just got some C&D izmir in yesterday and found it very bland, not a lot going on. Weird how people's pallets are so completely different. I mixed a little 50/50 with BCA to try this evening.

 

[Steddy]

I want to follow up:
After making the OP I tried Moroccan Bazaar, and it was good and reminded me of figs and some kind of sweet hard candy gum drop taste, but I couldn't tell if it was specifically an incense smell.

SG Cannon Plug had a major fruit taste that I couldn't identify exactly, like orange or plum, and a comparably strong smell that reminded me a lot of East Asian or hippie-style incense sticks or incense cones like I got 25+ years ago in a mall shop.

C & D Byzantium was a little sweet and nutty, with a little dark Latakia horse hay side, but was not quite like incense.

RB Plug had a light prune smell, Black House had a molasses-like side, GH Balkan reminded me of BBQ a little bit, and GT Pesse Canoe Oriental Flake had a fruit syrup flavor that I couldn't identify exactly - maybe grape or fig. But none of these last 4 blends smelled quite like incense to me.

You smoke Presbyterian yet?

 

[rakovsky]

You smoke Presbyterian yet?

No, just the ones that I mentioned.

 

[SBC]

SG Cannon Plug had a major fruit taste that I couldn't identify exactly, like orange or plum,

It's bergamot. Like in Earl Grey tea.

 

[InWithBothFeet]

It's bergamot. Like in Earl Grey tea.

That sounds interesting...

 

[smokiespipesmoker123]

The orientals in Temple Bar were incensy

 

[sittingbear]

Years ago I had a religious experience, incense aroma and all, smoking a bowl of McClelland Blue Mountain (RIP). I've been on the hunt ever since.

 

[Pypkė]

Experienced a lot of Church incense this past weekend. I was reminded that the fragrance is nothing at all like pipe tobacco. Since this thread was created, I've casually noted what pipe tobaccos may remind me of Church incense. I'd say Latakia heavy blends are evocative of incense, but then not at all like incense.

 

[SBC]

FWIW, there are a number of different incense recipes used in Christian churches, so "church incense" isn't just one scent any more than "tobacco" is just one scent. They have differing components and proportions, just like our pipe mixtures do. I have several priest friends (both Eastern Orthodox and Anglo-Catholic), and they can geek out on comparing incenses from church suppliers like we geek out on comparing tobaccos.

Still, I know what you mean. I have (rarely) had moments pipe smoking when a certain warm, sweet, exotic spiciness struck me as generically incense-like. I think usually with sweeter latakia mixtures. But never consistently from any one blend.

 

[WorthyStewart]

This has got to be one of my favorite threads on here.
For me personally I get a lot of incense-y smells/tastes from a few blends and they happen to be my favorite. My definition of incense could be different than “church incense” I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced proper church incense but I’m interested.
As for the blends some of them have been listed and you’ve said you’ve tried. For me personally I think all of this taste/smell comes from the Latakia....it’s why I love the Latakia so much. The blends for me are—
1. Balkan Sasieni
2. Star of the East Flake
3. Meridian

I have to look when I get home but as far as blends that I smoke regularly those are the tops. They are also available and easy to find.
I’ll post the other ones that I get this from when I can get home and poke around the cellar. These are just ones I can remember.
Thanks for a cool thread

​

 

[rakovsky]

Experienced a lot of Church incense this past weekend. I was reminded that the fragrance is nothing at all like pipe tobacco. Since this thread was created, I've casually noted what pipe tobaccos may remind me of Church incense. I'd say Latakia heavy blends are evocative of incense, but then not at all like incense.

Tobacco by itself naturally has a plum grape hay leaf wood smell, whereas Church incense tends to rely on frankincense and/or myrrh, which are tree resins.

Where I can particularly see special overlap is the wood aspect, in addition to cases where the tobacco is treated with incense-type material.

So for instance Kelembak Kemanyan Indonesian tobacco has Styrax Benzoin resin, which is a common resin in Church incense. Three Kings uses it in some of their incense blends, and they are a top supplier of Catholic church incense.

 

[rakovsky]

I just finished burning two standard brown incense cones that I got in a mall shop 25 years ago. I am guessing that they have sandalwood. The cones when they are sitting in the packet have a sweet slightly fruit syrup smell. Then when they are burnt they have a sweet wood smell, and leave a small syruplike stain on the metal foil where I burned them.

I am not sure what the ingredients are, but Drew Estate small "C note" cigars (really like mini cigars) have a tin note that reminds me of incense sticks, as does SG Cannon Plug that @SBC said has Bergamot. I had English Breakfast Tea yesterday and last Sunday had "Lady Grey" bergamot and lemon tea. I can see some similarity in a common musty herb smell in both, but it feels different. The difference could be because one is a smoke smell (C note cigars, incense cones/sticks, and Cannon Plug) and the other is a drink (tea). The smoke has a kind of wood powder herbal essence smell, whereas bergamot flavor in tea feels more like a bitter herb. Maybe the solution to this is that SG Cannon Plug has bergamot but also has other herbs that are shared with incense sticks, whereas Early Grey tea just has bergamot and tea. Plus, tobacco and tea are two different substances themselves, so that could confuse my palette more.

 

[rakovsky]

FWIW, there are a number of different incense recipes used in Christian churches, so "church incense" isn't just one scent any more than "tobacco" is just one scent. They have differing components and proportions, just like our pipe mixtures do. I have several priest friends (both Eastern Orthodox and Anglo-Catholic), and they can geek out on comparing incenses from church suppliers like we geek out on comparing tobaccos.

With church incense, you would be typically dealing with shrub and tree resins, especially frankincense and myrrh perhaps in part because frankincense and myrrh two resins were so prominent in the Gospels for the Nativity story. Church incenses get variations beyond those two resins, like how styrax benzoin resin is another common church incense ingredient.

Tobacco I guess tends to have basic scents depending on the genre, although it can have variations. I gave a longtime Canadian piper friend a Camel cigarette for his first time because it is Turkish style and I find it to have a special taste variation. He tried it and said that what I gave him just reminds him of cigarette tobacco.

The first time that I read a review calling a tobacco blend incenselike was a review for Dunhill/Petersen's My Mixture 965 on Tobacco Reviews. It got me pretty interested. When I tried it, it barely reminded me of incense. At most it brought to mind the moment when one is just beginning to light an incense disc in church.

 

[rakovsky]

This has got to be one of my favorite threads on here.
For me personally I get a lot of incense-y smells/tastes from a few blends and they happen to be my favorite. My definition of incense could be different than “church incense” I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced proper church incense but I’m interested.
As for the blends some of them have been listed and you’ve said you’ve tried. For me personally I think all of this taste/smell comes from the Latakia....it’s why I love the Latakia so much. The blends for me are—
1. Balkan Sasieni
2. Star of the East Flake
3. Meridian

I have to look when I get home but as far as blends that I smoke regularly those are the tops. They are also available and easy to find.
I’ll post the other ones that I get this from when I can get home and poke around the cellar. These are just ones I can remember.
Thanks for a cool thread

​

I like how you picked up the incense emojis, Worthy Stewart.

Evaluating blend smells is tricky for me in part because of the psychological aspect. When I smoked Fr. Dempsey, the name and the incense description by some reviewers could have biased me to associate it with incense, whereas if I had never read those descriptions, I guess that I would not have thought of incense when smoking it. On the other hand, theoretically there could be some chemicals in a blend that overlap with incense and I might not notice the overlap, just as when trying a raisin as a kid I probably did not think of it as being a dried grape before someone told me.

Church incense has a sweet oily smell, and one of the common ingredients is myrrh, which reminds me of a pine sap smell. I don't know if you've been in a pinewood cabin with a noticeable smell, but it's a little like that. You can get resin incense grains inexpensively at some shops that sell incense sticks, although they are different types of incense. The incense grains you need to put on burning charcoal, whereas you light incense sticks directly. Orthodox Churches have incense burning at liturgies and alot of Catholic Churches use it at holiday services. Whether a Protestant church uses it probably depends on the parish/congregation, but it's probably only some Lutherans and Episcopalians who use it.

I never had Meridian. Star of the East reminded me of ripe horsebarn hay and Balkan Sasieni reminded me of horsewear leather. Commonly Latakia reminds me of one or the other. I have more negative sensitivity to Latakia for my palatte than some other pipers do. I guess that this sensitivity could be like my relation to IPA beers. Sometimes I am even in the mood for some IPA beer, whereas some other IPAs are too bitter for me. However, I don't know that I'm ever in the mood for a Latakia heavy blend with the strong horsebarn or leather smell that I mentioned.

 

[WorthyStewart]

I like how you picked up the incense emojis, Worthy Stewart.

Evaluating blend smells is tricky for me in part because of the psychological aspect. When I smoked Fr. Dempsey, the name and the incense description by some reviewers could have biased me to associate it with incense, whereas if I had never read those descriptions, I guess that I would not have thought of incense when smoking it. On the other hand, theoretically there could be some chemicals in a blend that overlap with incense and I might not notice the overlap, just as when trying a raisin as a kid I probably did not think of it as being a dried grape before someone told me.

Church incense has a sweet oily smell, and one of the common ingredients is myrrh, which reminds me of a pine sap smell. I don't know if you've been in a pinewood cabin with a noticeable smell, but it's a little like that. You can get resin incense grains inexpensively at some shops that sell incense sticks, although they are different types of incense. The incense grains you need to put on burning charcoal, whereas you light incense sticks directly. Orthodox Churches have incense burning at liturgies and alot of Catholic Churches use it at holiday services. Whether a Protestant church uses it probably depends on the parish/congregation, but it's probably only some Lutherans and Episcopalians who use it.

I never had Meridian. Star of the East reminded me of ripe horsebarn hay and Balkan Sasieni reminded me of horsewear leather. Commonly Latakia reminds me of one or the other. I have more negative sensitivity to Latakia for my palatte than some other pipers do. I guess that this sensitivity could be like my relation to IPA beers. Sometimes I am even in the mood for some IPA beer, whereas some other IPAs are too bitter for me. However, I don't know that I'm ever in the mood for a Latakia heavy blend with the strong horsebarn or leather smell that I mentioned.

Love the emojis they are great for the thread. I get what you’re saying about the psychological aspect of smells and tastes with certain things. It’s interesting to think about that and how it applies for me with some of my favorites. (Not just tobacco either)
As far as the incense smell you’re looking for I’m through and through Protestant so I’ve probably never even experienced exactly what you’re looking for. I’m going to go on the hunt next time I’m out for some good resin grains. We have a handful of different kinds of sticks and cones at the house but I don’t think any of them compare to the resins but maybe. I’m honestly not even sure what it is about the Latakia specifically that makes me pick up on incense profile. It’s very hard to put my finger on it but I know it’s there. Unfortunately if you don’t get that essence from the Latakias you probably won’t much like Meridian as it is in the same ballpark as Star of the East. . .
Good luck on the hunt! If you ever do finally nail it down I would love know.

 

[rakovsky]

As far as the incense smell you’re looking for I’m through and through Protestant so I’ve probably never even experienced exactly what you’re looking for. I’m going to go on the hunt next time I’m out for some good resin grains. We have a handful of different kinds of sticks and cones at the house but I don’t think any of them compare to the resins but maybe. I’m honestly not even sure what it is about the Latakia specifically that makes me pick up on incense profile. It’s very hard to put my finger on it but I know it’s there. Unfortunately if you don’t get that essence from the Latakias you probably won’t much like Meridian as it is in the same ballpark as Star of the East. . .
Good luck on the hunt! If you ever do finally nail it down I would love know.

I don't know how many Lutheran or Episcopalian Churches you would have to attend before you would run into a service with incense.

I get the sense that sandalwood is a typical stick and cone incense ingredient. Some Church incense blends include it. I got "Temple of Solomon" AKA "Salomon" incense made by Three Kings, the main producer of Catholic incense. The blend includes Styrax Benzoin, Frankincense, Myrrh, and sandalwood. The producer probably colors the blend red, which makes me think of perfume. So I think of it as having a resin, perfume, and sandalwood smell.

About 15 minutes' drive from me there is a hippie-themed store that has boxes of incense. Besides stick/cone incense it also has sandalwood, and probably frankincense or myrrh. Frankincense and Myrrh are pretty cheap to get online, and they make cool Christmas presents or special Christmas decorations. When I was a kid, I thought that the porcelain sets with the magi carrying those spices were pretty cool.

The first time that I smoked Englishes, they were two local B & M house blends. These two blends were like musty barrels of overripe barnyard horsestall hay to my palatte. Typically I avoid calling any Latakia blends "stinky" because it is so subjective, negative and not very specific. When I smoked those two, I had a mini-crisis and wondered how people could like smoking Latakias because of those blends' smell. Compared to common blends, these two were like Star of the East, Wellauer's English, and Sutliff's pure Latakia.

Since that time, I smoked some blends with partial Latakia like Maltese Falcon and Fr. Dempsey that people called incenselike. I smoked them after reading those descriptions, and they had a marginal incense smell for me. Some blends like Revelation have a marginal amount of Latakia and they aren't at all stinky for me. Some other blends like Standard Mixture for whatever reason have Latakia and aren't stinky either.

Getting back to the incense issue, I tried 16 out of about 50 supposed incenselike blends. Out of these 16, three stand out:

Moroccan Bazaar was good and deliberately made with an added incense flavor, and to my pallate may have showen up as a sweet candy hard gum drop flavor;

Kemenyan Kelembak has Styrax Benzoin resin and for me had a little incenselike scentiness. It was a fine blend but not amazing. This blend is used in Sintren cigarettes.

Margate had an amazingly high quality aromatic smell that reminded me of Chaps cologne on an oily incense body. That is, incense comes across to me as more oily than tobacco smoke normally does, and Margate had an oilyness that reminded me of that.