Incense

[olivierco]

I have recently bought a little koro.



What kind of incense do you burn in it?
Do you have some good and precise recommendations for good quality incense, especially from shops that will ship to France without astronomical shipping costs?

[Geekgirl]

sweet little thing. I have been looking at them as well, but have yet to take the plunge.

[hop_goblin]

I tried lighting incense while brewing but it just really caused chaos with the aroma and taste of my brew.

[Victoria]

Because of the size of the holes and the depth, it's not going to be good for premium Japanese incense. But it might work well for burning resins. And cheaper too. Buy some quality ash and only use the good quality charcoal.

[chamekke]

Not sure of the dimensions of your burner, but it looks as though it should work (and is possibly meant) for burning cone-shaped incense.

There are a few cone-shaped Japanese incenses available, mainly through Shoyeido if I recall correctly.

[TIM]

This one looks like a traditional japanese kodo burner. They usually use wood chips instead of stick or cone incense (processed). There is a American which teaches and sells these kind of thing:

David Oller (http://www.oller.net)
and Rosanne Tartaro (sunrosearomatics.com)
http://www.oller.net/agarwood.htm

I did a kodo gathering mid this year to learn more.... if you are interested.
http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... g-101.html

[chamekke]

You might be able to use this as a koudou cup, but every koudou cup I've ever seen has a very distinctive shape and dimensions. For example, the sides are usually straight, not curved in at the top; nor have I never seen one with a lid. (There is a type of koudou implement that has an openwork silver lid, but it's used purely for heating the charcoal prior to use.)

I still think (not 100% sure) that this is intended for burning commercial pressed incense rather than "listening" to heated aloeswood chips; but having said that, Olivier can always give the koudou approach a try. It's my favourite way of enjoying incense, in fact.

If I recall correctly (because it's been a while), I bought my aloeswood chips from Essence of the Ages. The owner, Beth, also sells a full range of koudou accessories, including the ash, bamboo charcoal, and sets of utensils. (Warning: this hobby can sop up a lot of your cash!)

BTW, I spell it koudou and not kodo because (1) both O-s are long, and (2) most people who talk about kodo are talking about Japanese kodo drumming, which is a different beast