From a small incense workshop in Kunming
Sandry Law, our Head of Procurement in China, spent years visiting Yunnan’s tea mountains before she came across an unassuming incense workshop in the back streets of Kunming. The makers — a couple in their sixties — still press each stick by hand, using only pure sandalwood powder and a little natural binder from the root of a local plant. No synthetic oils, no accelerants, no dipped-wood shortcuts.
During a procurement trip for pu-erh, Sandry stayed an extra day to watch the whole process: the fine powder mixed with water into a paste, extruded through a simple wooden press, then laid on bamboo racks to dry under the Yunnan sun. The workshop smelled of nothing but clean wood and old clay. She tested a handful of sticks in her hotel room that evening, timing the burn and checking for off-notes. There were none.
We now import these incense sticks in small batches. Each bundle of 30 burns true — a steady, creamy sandalwood that never turns harsh. For us, it’s the perfect clearing scent between rounds of sheng pu-erh or a quiet companion to an afternoon dancong session. Sandry insists on batch-by-batch quality checks, so every box that reaches you carries the same quiet integrity she found in that Kunming courtyard.