Nag Champa is an extremely popular Indian incense based on a combination of magnolia (Magnolia champaca flower), or frangipani (Plumeria rubra and Plumeria acutifolia flowers), and sandalwood.
You can also use Mesua ferrea flower, but using the Magnolia flower is, by far, the most common practice for manufacturers and DIYs people like us (or is it?).
The Champaca (Magnolia) is related to Star Anise, and its scent shares the spicy characteristics of star anise as well as the fruitiness of magnolia. champaca has a penetrating, smooth and rich aroma that is reminiscent of tea, spices, and a floral note that is often compared to orange blossom.
What is the Nag Champa incense actually made from?
There’s often a lot of confusion between the champaca flowers and the Nag Champa incense.
Those who once smelled the Nag Champa incense may find champaca scent to be somewhat similar. The reason being that Nag Champa incense incorporates halmaddi, a grey, semi-liquid resin taken from the Alianthustree, which smells very similar to champaca flower.
The champaca flowers may have been used in the traditional recipes for Nag Champa, but there’s absolutely no chance that you can find the champaca flower in incense sticks sold around the world. Considering that the going price for champaca absolute is between 7,000-12,000 a kg, how can the manufacturers afford themselves to use the real champaca flower?
Nag Champa Incense sticks prices cost around 9$ for a 20gr packet (25 sticks) – that means a $0.45 per gr, when 1gr of champaca flower will probably cost no less than $7.
I won’t dwell on the weight of the sticks themselves, but it’s obvious that the incense sticks price doesn’t really sit well with the high-priced fragrance it presumes to sell.
How to make DIY Nag Champa Incense sticks?
Doing it yourself is straightforward for those who already have mild experience with incense sticks making. Most people don’t use the champaca flower because of the high costs. The incense is made by grinding and mixing the ingredients you wish to use, and burning with charcoal. To make incense sticks, sandalwood sticks are dipped in the incense mixture, which consists of oils and resins mixed with finely ground powders, including charcoal, to help it burn, all at an even consistency.
If you prefer to just buy
As I mentioned, incense sticks prices that don’t include the real thing are reasonable. I would never buy high priced incense sticks the argue to contain the real champaca because I would never know if I’m cheated out of my money. I did try once (and only once) buying the fragrance as a perfume and I was quite pleased by the smell. I just hope that what I smelled was the “real deal”, but then again – if I enjoyed the smell, does it really matter?