Aloha from Big Island!

IncenseApprentice

Thanks to Nathan for inviting me to the forum! I'm Sara, and I'm the writer behind Incense Apprentice as well as a budding incense maker.

When did you first get into incense?
Last summer (2024) when I randomly won some incense as a door prize. I idly googled, educated myself about some incense history, and realized--I could make this stuff! I got a Carl Neal book and have been deeply obsessed ever since.

What do you hope to get out of this forum?
Having fun nerding out with fellow incense nerds on ingredients, tools, and techniques.

How long have you been making incense?
Since summer of 2024. I was lucky enough to spend a week studying with Persephenie Lea last October and learned oh so much!

Favorite incense variety
My mind likes natural-ingredient-based joss sticks...but my lungs prefer nerikoh or pastilles on the warmer, as there is such a thing as burning too much incense! (Madame Pele's all-natural air pollution enflaming my lungs doesn't help, either.)

Top incense making tip
Buy SMALL samples of herbs new to you from a reputable vendor (Amazon and Etsy are of inconsistent quality) and test them on charcoal before making anything with them. I wasted a lot of money buying way to many herbs that were either stale or I didn't really care for the smell.

What other interests or hobbies do you have?
I enjoy wandering around in forests, birding, writing, live music, travel, macrame, yoga, breathwork, and reading nonfiction.

Nathan

IncenseApprentice welcome! I read about your experience studying with Persephenie, it sounds like a great experience!

SamsaSpoon

IncenseApprentice writer behind Incense Apprentice

Is that just like subscribing to a newsletter?

Nathan

SamsaSpoon I know that substack publications do have an RSS feed you can use

SamsaSpoon

Nathan I realized while scrolling through your blogroll, thanks!

Nathan

SamsaSpoon It's annoying how substack hides it; I have to dig into the source code of substack blogs to find the feed!

SamsaSpoon

Nathan Wow! Thanks for doing that!

SamsaSpoon

I read through your articles throughout the last weeks, it was fun!

Re: your latest post:

If you chew resins like mastic or frankincense, you don't want to chew a piece of the same size as a regular chewing gum. One or two little resin kernels are what I usually use.
If the thought doesn't gross you out, you can still burn/heat the resin afterwards.

Chewing spruce resin is also a thing, btw. It's the most bitter tasting of all resins I tried. Mastic is the mildest.

I have a friend who is half Turkish. She once told me about a pudding they make, with a resin they call Sakiz (and the pudding is just called sakiz pudding). It is rice flour, milk, sugar and just a few kernels of the resin added. You boil it until the flour starts to bind. After filling it in bowls, you dust a little bit cinnamon on top.
I never had a real recipe, as they are always just eyeballing it.
I never managed to get the resin to properly dissolve, even though she said it should. I eventually just ground it beforehand and added it like this.

She brought me some sakiz and I instantly suspected it must be mastic after smelling and tasting it. You confirmed it! 😃
Maybe the term sakiz will lead you to some more interesting recipes.

I'm almost sure you must have heard about Trygve Harris and her Frankincense ice cream?

I once made Frankincense chocolate and wanted to try my hands on Frankincense candy as well, but some newly developed malabsorption problems got in my way. :/

I once made a liqueur from the wild cherries around here (Germany) and I noticed the liquid developing an amaretto like aroma after the 5th week or so of maceration. I suspected it might come from the seeds. I think I even read somewhere that the seeds of cherries can be used similar as bitter almonds are.
I can imagine this aroma fits very nicely into an Easter bread. Yours certainly looks delicious!

IncenseApprentice

SamsaSpoon

I have no problem warming ABC (already been chewed) mastic, haha! Another friend of mine is bugging me to try and let her know, so I will have to chew some mastic now. For science! I even have some spruce resin I'm planning to play with soon, but the smell of it already tells me it will be a bit stronger than I would prefer. One of my favorite characters from Twin Peaks, the Log Lady, is infamous for chewing Douglas fir resin and spitting it everywhere.

Sakiz/ mastic pudding definitely sounds like something my husband would like. Rice flour is a big dessert ingredient here in Hawaii, too--I could even see making mastic-flavored mochi!

That frankincense ice cream sounds amazing. Years ago, way before I got into incense, I was some kind of Middle Eastern street fair in Chicago and tried some kind of resinous ice cream (probably mastic). The server made this big show of turning it upside down and throwing it all over the place to prove how thick it was. I remember it being quite tasty. I am intrigued by your frankincense chocolate, though I don't much care for white chocolate (except when it's paired with matcha). Have you ever tried resins with regular/ dark chocolate?

Thanks for reading 🙂 The tsoureki was so good! I shall have to experiment and see if I can find more ways to use mahleb.

Nathan

Seconding @SamsaSpoon: Great post! I once made a gin and frankincense tincture to use as bitters when I was working as a cocktail bartender. It never wound up in a build, but it was interesting. Love the idea of using mescal and resins together; I have a feeling agave based spirits jive really well with light resins. It makes me wonder about combining opoponax with a smoky whisky like Ardbeg. Maybe some orange peel also. I could also see a gimlet variation of mastic, gin, lime, a few drops of crème de violette, and some muddled cucumber being really nice. You could serve it up or in a highball topped with soda. I also have a friend who started a pisco company; her pisco has a lot of very nice tropical fruit and floral notes that would be nice with mastic too.

IncenseApprentice

Nathan Thanks! I've been putting off experiments with nerikoh because it's just so sticky and tedious to make, so incense as food/drink is my new jam apparently. Your opoponax idea sounds really interesting! I typically dislike smoky, peaty whiskies but I was so entranced with mastic/ mescal that maybe I'll play with a Scotch/ opoponax infusion. The gimlet idea sounds great too! (I love creme de violette, Aviations were my tipple of choice back in my dirty 30s haha.) I love to fantasize about having an incense bar/ coffee shop, where not only could people buy incense from around the world (including stuff I made), but they could chill and eat/drink incense goodies.

SamsaSpoon

IncenseApprentice

For science!

That's the spirit! 😃

I could even see making mastic-flavored mochi!

😮 Now, that's an idea!

I'm very picky with dark chocolate combinations and I just couldn't imagine the two flavours going well together. Even though the combination appears to be popular.
Actually, Matcha chocolate is what likely inspired me to give frankincense a try with white chocolate. White chocolate is usually also not my thing, but I LOOVE matcha white chocolate.