Hi,
My name is Irene, but many will know me as Samsa Spoon on Reddit r/Incense and other corners of the internet.
I am the author of rauchfahne.de, a place where I review incense and share all sorts of thoughts and information about incense in general as a hobby incense maker and enthusiast.

When did you first get into incense?
My first memory regarding incense is ₁₂ y/o me finding two packs of incense sticks in a rarely used, old cupboard at home. They must have belonged to my Mom.
I started using incense (sticks) in my early teens. I vaguely remember liking some Auroshikha and the “blue box Nag Champa” 😉 but soon found the German brand BERK’s incense sticks and deemed them the only ones worth burning (aside from 2-3 exceptions that are no longer existing) at that time. This was before you could order everything on the internet and the selection was very limited, especially if you were living in a rural area like I do.

In my early twenties, I was introduced to loose incense via the renaissance fair scene. In the course of this, I also started to make my own blends.
This eventually led to me abandoning stick incense entirely for nearly 15 years. I blame r/Incense (and the internet in general) for getting me hooked again. 😛

What do you hope to get out of this forum?
I just LOVE to talk/write and read about incense; I can’t help it, I’m an incense nerd, even if it’s a topic I’m not really concerned with, I will still read it out of curiosity.
The only thing I draw the line is backflow “incense”.
How long have you been making incense?
Loose blends for nearly 20 years. At some point in this journey, I picked up making kneaded incense.
I started experimenting with combustible incense about 3ish years ago, with a focus on coreless sticks, usually below 2mm.

Favourite incense variety
As much fun as it is to explore the sheer endless options of commercial stick incense, nothing beats natural loose or kneaded incense for me.

Top incense making tip

Use a fine scale
Try your individual ingredients on charcoal to get a feeling for them,
test-burn blends for combustible incense as a trail on a bed of ash to get an idea of the blend and to see if it will burn.
Take notes
Give your incense time! Let it harmonize and mature. Don’t judge it before it is at least 2 weeks old. Keep some and try how it smells if it’s 2 months, 6 months, a year. Especially with combustible incense.

What other interests or hobbies do you have?
I’m a cat-loving goth-soul and a creative artsy-craftsy person in general. Everything from home-renovations to little upcycling projects; from soapstone carving to photoshop.
I like playing Minecraft with my best friend, but otherwise, I stay away from video-games
because they are too addictive.