Incense Sticks - A Brief History of Incense

Discover the amazing history behind incense usedModern incense just like ancient incense; has roughly
from 4000 BC and now in thousands of homesfive ingredients: aromatic powder, wood pulp, an
across the world. See how simple it is to use andadhesive or binder (probably gum arabic) and wood
why you should consider it for beautiful homepulp. These ingredients are generally mixed together
fragrances. Those amazing sticks that are imbuedto form a paste that can be rolled onto a thin
with fragrant oils and are used to send forthsandalwood stick. The mixture and stick are allowed
aromatic wafts of curling smoke have a long historyto dry and voilá, incense! Commercially, the way
dating back to approximately 4000 BC, but seriously,incense is made is very similar, except that
we love incense for one reason and that’smechanical processes are used to take the wet
because it smells wonderful. However, it’sincense mixture and form it around a cored stick or
important and sometimes a lot of fun to take a lookpress it into a mold.
at where these marvelous inventions that give usThe great thing about incense is that you can
such pleasure came from.generally find an aroma that suits your nose or your
Truly, since way before hippies and flower childrenneeds. Even better are the types of incense available.
were even a twinkle of a twinkle of a twinkle in theirStick incense is probably the most popular form of
ancestor’s eye, incense has been used by theincense, followed by cone-shaped incense. Both are
human race to cleanse the air with its purifyingeasily burned and come in hundreds of different
scents. Ancient civilizations and nearly all cultures havescents. Generally, these types of incense burn fairly
used incense in their religious rituals, embalming ritesquickly, maybe lasting from twenty to forty-minutes.
and in honor of their ancestors. There are evenIf you want something that burns a lot slower, you
many references to incense in the Old and Newmay be interested in spiral incense. Amazingly, this
Testaments of the Bible.stuff can burn for hours or even days!
Okay, so, we’ve come to the conclusion thatThe last type of incense that we’re going to
incense is really, really old, but now you might belook at is powdered incense. Most of the time, this
asking yourself, “How is it made?” Well, theincense is reserved for religious ceremonies. It takes
answer isn’t simple because it depends ona lot of prep time and it’s not exactly the
what type of incense you’re talking about.most convenient type of incense to burn for those
Some incense sticks are made from differentof us who are in a hurry or just want something we
varieties of raw wood, herbs, sticks soaked incan light up with the quick flick of lighter or match.
aromatic oils or even powders and pastes. But toHopefully this has shed a bit of light on the wonderful
keep things simple, let’s focus on stick incenseworld of incense. The next step you should take is
that you burn, because that’s what peopleto get out and make your own or find your favorite
generally think of when they hear the wordaromatic “flavour” and light it up.
“incense”.