Satya Opium: heavy, sweet incense from India
The name Opium points to a style of perfume here rather than to an ingredient. This is the classic heavy, sweet accord familiar from oriental fragrances: floral on top, with amber and vanilla underneath rounding everything off. Set against the fresher scents in the Satya range, Opium stays close to the ground. It suits the evening, a dim room and a single lamp, far more than a bright morning. Shops that have carried the line for years describe the profile as rich and sophisticated, which sums it up well.
The sticks are rolled entirely by hand in India and made with natural herbs and flower extract. In that masala method a paste of resin, wood powder, herbs and fragrance oil is wrapped around a bamboo stick, after which the sticks dry slowly. Because every stick is rolled by hand the thickness varies slightly from one to the next, and so does the burning time. A box holds 15 grams, which comes to roughly 12 to 15 sticks of about 20 centimetres. Expect somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes of burn time per stick, depending on how much air moves through the room. The fragrance carries a long way, so half a stick will often do in a small space.
Burning and storage
Light the tip, give the flame two or three seconds to catch and then blow it out; the stick glows on by itself. Set it at an angle in an incense holder or upright in a small dish of sand so the ash is caught neatly. Keep a little air moving, place the stick well away from curtains and never leave it burning unattended. Store the box closed and dry and the fragrance oil will stay in the sticks longer.
About Satya
Satya is the brand of Shrinivas Sugandhalaya from Bengaluru, known around the world for Nag Champa. The maker warns about counterfeits itself: check the hologram and the certification mark on the box. Alongside Opium, Avalon Magic Plants stocks other scents from the same line, among them Musk, Jasmine, Palo Santo, Natural and Dragon's Blood.
