Chatting, drinking tea...... Brother Ma also took out a handful of incense sticks very seriously!

Zhou Fangyuan was very curious, he hadn't seen much incense sticks before, of course he knew about incense sticks, but he hadn't seen them.

This thing is different from Buddha incense, Buddha incense involves faith, and you need to go to the temple to ask for it? But incense sticks are different, incense sticks don't have so many words, you can buy them back casually. But this thing is obviously relatively high-end, too far away from ordinary people. Zhou Fangyuan can't be regarded as an ordinary person now, but after all, his jumping time is too short, and he really hasn't been exposed to such a compulsive thing.

"This is the incense I paid a lot of money to get back, come, you all try it, see how it feels. ”

Brother Ma has a lot of meaning to offer treasures, beckoning everyone to come around to taste the incense, and at the same time, he also introduces some knowledge of this incense stick to everyone as much as possible.

Incense sticks are incense without bamboo cores, also called straight incense and grass incense. It is composed of aggregates, binders, spices, pigments and auxiliary materials. As early as the Song and Ming dynasties, incense sticks burned for a long time, so they are also called "fairy incense" or "longevity incense", in ancient times, common temples used the length of incense sticks as the unit of time measurement, so it was also called "incense inch".

The binder is commonly used in sticky powder, which is commonly known as elm bark powder, which is used to bond the aggregates together to make the incense strong, elastic and not easy to break. The quality of elm bark powder is also not the same. The ratio of viscose powder to aggregate is about 1:1-1:2. Cornstarch can also be added.

High-grade spices are a variety of natural spices, such as sandalwood, agarwood, etc. There can also be a variety of spices in traditional Chinese medicine, such as star anise, fennel, etc. The most commonly used are various flavors. The difference in cost for different spices is considerable. Most of them are blended with a variety of flavors. The use of flavors can create a variety of scents that people like, which are not inferior to or superior to natural flavors and Chinese herbal flavors, because some flavors are extracted from natural flavors. But when it comes to the quality of incense, compared to natural spices and Chinese herbal spices, I am afraid it is beyond the dust.

Of course, what Brother Ma has in his hands is probably a pure natural spice, and it must be the most expensive one.

After all, at his level, the big boss is a big boss, and it is a little too much to say that he can use defective products. And he doesn't understand what he says, in fact, he must be the door clear, otherwise he was coaxed, and if he takes it out now and happens to meet someone who knows how to do it, it's not the rhythm of slapping his face every minute?

Even if no one will slap him in the face, then he is embarrassed enough, so in any case, at least this fragrance must be a good fragrance recognized by Brother Da Ma, and it must be expensive, so Zhou Fangyuan's heart is full of expectations.

As for the pigments in incense, there are naturally many colors. Commonly used rose essence, red, tender yellow, green green, gold powder, etc. There are no special requirements for pigmentation, and there is also a plain fragrance without pigmentation. Then there are some trace things added by producers in order to improve quality or reduce costs, such as spiritual powder, gold flakes, calcium carbonate, potassium nitrate, etc. Water is also essential in perfumery. Although water cannot be counted as a raw material, water plays an important role in the process of making incense, and the incense can only be counted as a finished product after drying, drying, and removing water. But in the process of making incense, water is indispensable. In the stirring raw materials, the weight of water accounts for about 40%-60%, which is quite different due to the variety of incense, the process of making incense, the essence of the material, the climate, the equipment and other factors.

Incense sticks can also be subdivided according to different materials.

The first is single product incense, the so-called single product incense, that is, a single spice is used directly, or ground into powder, or made into incense sticks, plate incense and other incense products. Common wood blocks or powders such as agarwood and sandalwood, which are mainly used to exert their unique aroma and efficacy, and are not mixed with other spice ingredients. However, some types of single product fragrance are prone to dryness, and although the fragrance is pure, it may not be able to make people feel happy, and it has the effect of calming the mind and curing diseases. So you can't smoke blindly. Agarwood and sandalwood have an elegant smell and significant medicinal effect, so their single product fragrance is more popular in the market.

The second is harmony incense, which refers to incense products made by blending several spices, for example, incense products used in religious offerings or sacrifices are often composed of multiple ingredients. Hehe incense is generally made of a variety of plant spices, with a fixed formula, most of which will not be mixed with animal secretions or spices made of flesh, nor will they be mixed with other substances that will emit a foul smell or have no aroma. Each kind of incense has its own specific effect, but also has its own unique name, common Buddhist incense products include obstacle removal incense, Manjushri incense, medicine incense and so on.

In addition, incense sticks can be divided into two types: with and without a wood core, according to the shape of the slender thread. The one with a wood core is made by coating elm and other bark paste as a binder on a bamboo branch cut into thin straight strips, and then evenly wrapping the incense powder on the incense branch and compacting it. Incense sticks without bamboo cores are directly mixed with incense powder and compacted into long strips.

Incense sticks are also divided into different types according to the materials selected, in terms of common incense products on the current market, there are: Nha Trang agarwood incense, Ambon agarwood incense, Johor Bahru sandalwood incense, Lao Son sandalwood incense, Vietnam Hue An agarwood incense, Indonesian water agarwood incense, red clay agarwood incense, etc., each incense has its own unique fragrance and efficacy, people can choose according to their own needs.

In short, the production of incense sticks is not simple, and the production of really good incense sticks, from raw materials, to processing, to production, every step is very complicated, so the cost of really good incense sticks is naturally very high. So why is it far away from the common people, if you want to say that this thing is completely useless and used to install beeps, that is not entirely correct, but if you really want to say that it has any special effect, in fact, it is not so.

The high cost of construction, for ordinary people, instead of using such a sum of money to buy incense, it is better to buy meat and vegetables, and buy all the materials needed for life, instead of using it in such a useless place.

Is incense useful? Of course it is.

The use of incense sticks was extremely common in ancient times, especially loved by the aristocratic class and literati, and was a necessary daily necessities for their home health preservation and cultivation of sentiment. Modern people have also begun to pay attention to the importance of incense, and the main functions of incense sticks are as follows.

The first is to beautify the environment, good incense for incense, can produce a very fresh and elegant aroma, for removing room odor, beautify the indoor environment has a very obvious effect.

Again is pleasant and pleasant, agarwood, sandalwood and other high-quality incense for smoking is the first choice of incense, the smell produced by it is mellow, elegant, refreshing, not only can beautify the environment, but also can add a bit of life to people.

Thirdly, it is the practice of participating in meditation, and the beautiful aroma has the function of calming the nerves and opening the mind, which can assist the practitioner to achieve purity and positive concentration.

Again, it is for the gods to sacrifice, there are few high-quality incense products specially used for sacrifices, and some natural spices made of incense products used to assist cultivation and cultivate feelings can be used as sacrificial incense. Most of the common "sacrificial incense" is only marked with the sacrificial theme on the packaging and name. For example, some indicate the gods to be worshipped: offering Buddha incense, Guanyin incense, God of Wealth incense, etc.; some indicate the content of the prayer: blessing incense, auspicious peace incense, etc.; some indicate the place of worship: Wutai Mountain, Putuo Mountain, etc. As for the quality of the incense, it is uneven.

Finally, and most importantly, it is to maintain health and cure diseases. The raw materials of incense-like products, especially the raw materials of high-end products, are mostly natural spices and Chinese herbal medicines, which can be subdivided into different types according to different efficacy, and each fragrance has a corresponding specific formula and production process. Health and disease relieving incense products focus on formulas, materials and production processes, and the appearance can be diverse and informal. For example, incense products to prevent plague: most of them are incense sticks or incense sticks, and incense products to improve sleep: incense pillows and sachets filled with special incense medicines, or incense sticks and incense sticks for burning.

Therefore, incense is definitely useful and good for people. It's just that its benefits are not obvious or strong enough, and to be honest, this thing is like a food supplement, you have to use it often, and you can only see the effect after a long period of use, otherwise it will be a waste of money.

As for the quality of incense......

Brother Da Ma said when he introduced them that the so-called sincerity, as long as you have peace of mind, what kind of fragrance is a good fragrance.

But this is just an outsider, even Zhou Fangyuan, a person who doesn't understand incense at all, knows that incense must have very strict standards for good and bad.

Zhou Fangyuan suddenly remembered that he seemed to have read an article in his previous life, and the content discussed in it was that some incense friends thought that burning incense ashes constantly was a good incense.

Is this true?

Very simply, this statement is inaccurate, anyway, Zhou Fangyuan feels that this statement is wrong.

Let's first discuss why some incense sticks burn with incense ash? Generally, there are only two possibilities for this situation. The first is that the oil content in the spice has reached a certain level, and there will be natural rolling. And this situation generally appears in the incense sticks of the Hui'an system, but the rolls of the Xingzhou system and the national incense Hainan incense stick are relatively rare, can you say that the incense sticks of the Xiangxing Zhou system are not good? This is obviously not right. The second situation is the human factor, that is, how much adhesive is mixed in, if the high proportion of adhesive mixed in causes the incense sticks to roll, is it possible that we say that he is a good incense stick? This is obviously not right.

So don't be fooled by the merchant's propaganda. Many merchants add more than 20% of the adhesive and then tell the consumer how to roll it, which is completely deceiving the consumer. Whether the incense sticks are rolled or not is not the only indicator to measure the quality of agarwood incense, in addition, there are other indicators that can be used to measure.

Taste the fragrance of the line.

Like agarwood, you still have to directly feel the taste of incense, and the aroma can't deceive people. So you don't have to listen to others, smell it first, feel the taste for yourself, whether it makes you feel comfortable, good incense sticks have no obvious odor, you can feel a light fragrance aroma, not irritating, not strong. If at this time you smell a strong aroma or even a strange smell of chemical incense, then there must be something wrong with this incense. The next thing is that there is a miscellaneous smell in the burning process, and the smell of fireworks, as long as it is an uncomfortable smell, it will definitely not be able to escape, so whether the fragrance is pure when the incense is burned directly, whether the grade of raw materials is high, and whether the body feels comfortable are the criteria for judging the quality of incense.

Then it's time to look at the appearance of the incense sticks.

There are a few things to pay attention to about the appearance of incense. The first is the color, if the incense stick you see is bright red, dark black, extremely yellow and other strange colors, then this incense stick must be problematic, it is very likely to be dyed incense, do not buy. The second is to look at the appearance, the real incense sticks made of natural agarwood powder must be rough in appearance. The smoother and more regular incense sticks generally contain some bad ingredients, such as stone powder, chemical glue, and potassium nitrate as sticks. So this is also very important, the incense sticks made of real natural agarwood powder are relatively rough, and they will not be very straight, and the color is very simple, and they will be broken with a single stroke.

Finally, check whether there is a hierarchy of fragrance.

Really good agarwood incense, after the new incense production period, generally naturally mellowed for about 2 months, then ignited at this time, smelled, the aroma must be layered, in addition to a little fire when just lit, the next will turn rhyme, then the fragrance at this time is distant, sweet, mellow. Therefore, whether there is a fragrance or not, whether the level is clear is also an important indicator to distinguish the quality of a incense stick.

And there is a way to smell the incense, you don't have to put your nose to smell the incense, that's too stupid, not to mention that there will be no fragrance when the incense stick is just lit, even if you smell it, it will be in vain.

At this time, the incense stick should be inserted first, do not smell the fragrance, and the other is that the incense stick is not to worship the Buddha, do not put it very high to offer, but should be placed on a relatively low table, and wait for the incense stick to burn for a while, you can start to taste the incense. At this time, the fragrance will slowly burrow into the nose, no need to smell closely, and keep the room ventilated when lighting the incense, which is more suitable for the diffusion of the fragrance.

In short, the act of smelling and appreciating incense is simple and simple, complex and complicated. Rich people may not need to worry too much about raw materials, after all, as long as the money is in place, they will definitely be able to buy good things. But what about after buying it? If you taste the incense, how to appreciate the incense, how to find peace and tranquility from the incense, this is not easy. And this kind of mysterious and mysterious thing, sometimes it pays attention to a talent, entered, understood, that is okay. If you can't get in, you can't understand, and it's pointless to buy expensive things.

Anyway, this thing is quite suitable for middle-aged people, and the elderly are also good, and the young ...... Zhou Fangyuan didn't talk about others, he definitely didn't have the heart to sit down and enjoy the incense. I'm here today.,It's okay to reward a reward.,After going back another day.,He probably will leave this thing behind.,Because I don't like it.,So basically there's no interest.,And it's not suitable for investment.,The final result is only to be rewarded once and become a nobody.,Anyway, this thing is estimated to have nothing to do with him.。