The Challenge:
Adding thick, sticky resin to powdered incense is tricky. I tried melting it, but it hardened on contact. Freezing and grinding it didn’t work either—the grinder’s heat turned it into a gummy mess.
The Solution:
Instead of adding the resin into the powdered incense ingredients, we will reverse the process. We will add the powdered ingredients into the resin.
Before You Begin:
• I’ve used up to 40% resin with 60% makko, but the scent was too strong—20–30% is better. Adjust based on your recipe.
• Resin also works as a binder, so no need for extra gums. If you use less than 15% resin, you may need a binder.
• Part of the fun with incense is exploration. Make small batches before you go big to preserve your ingredients.
• Always mix your dry ingredients well before adding the resin.
What You Need:
Optionally, you can use a #40-#80 sieve.
The Instructions:
Lay out your silicone mat or wax paper. Sprinkle your powdered ingredients onto the mat.
Place your resin on top of the powder and sprinkle powder onto the resin.
Fold the silicone mat / wax paper onto the resin/powder mix. Then carefully set your heavy object onto the resin/powder mix. You can leave it like this for 10 minutes and come back or you can apply downward pressure onto the resin/powder mix to flatten the resin into a pancake.
You will remove the heavy object, unfold the silicone mat / wax paper and this will be the result.
Sprinkle more powder onto the resin pancake.
Fold the pancake in half, and then in half again.
You will want to repeat steps 3-6. No less than 6 times. You'll know you are done doing this when there is nearly no stickiness and the dough begins to break apart easily as seen in this photo.
Now you can tear the pancake into little pieces by hand. The pieces don't need to be tiny, about the size of an American dime or 1 Euro cent coin.
Add the little resin pieces to some of your powder. I find a 1:1 ratio is good. And grind the mix in your grinder. Note, to avoid too much heat, I suggest pulsing the grinder and then allowing it to cool down. Too hot and the resin will melt.
After 20 seconds of pulse grinding, you should have something like this. If not, continue grinding.
You can now pour the mixed powder out and feel for any lumps. If you feel lumps, you should continue grinding. You can also add more powder. Otherwise, you can use the metal sieve to isolate the little bits of resin. I like to put the sieve in a bowl and then pour the powder into the sieve.
You’ll see after sieving some chunks of resin that weren’t small enough.
Now you can take the resin bits and add them to more powder and re-grind until you don't see that in the sieve. You may run out of powder, that's fine. You can use the powder that has some resin in it to re-grind.
