Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa.  Named for the famous Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba and introduced in the mid 1960′s, it would be the gold standard for nag champa for quite a long time.  It seems a few years ago that Shrinivas Sugandhalaya altered the formulation of their nag champa to use less halmaddi as it is becoming increasingly more expensive.  Because of that people began casting about for a nag champa that was closer in scent to the original Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa.  They seem to have settled on Shanthimalai nag champa as the winner there and claim it is more like Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa than Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa itself!

However, that will lead into the never ending debate of which is the best, which is the most pure, and so forth and so on till the cows come strolling home.  My goal (and job) is to try and help you decide how to get the most for your money when it comes to enjoying an incense of any scent or brand.  I don’t have biases and I am not a scent snob.  I have caused true incense snobs to hemorrhage on the spot when I declared their favorite, un-pronounceable, amazingly expensive incense did nothing for me.

So with that aside firmly spell checked, lets talk about Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa.  Is it worth the hype and number one selling incense spot?  Well, yes and no.  Make no mistake, it is an excellent nag champa.  Perfectly representative of nag champa incense.  Warm, earthy, sweet, slightly “moist” smelling and with plenty of character.  However, that comes with a big “but”.  That is to say but for me personally there are better nag champas available.  Shanthimalai being one and Goloka being another.  I think the reason Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa is number one is that people have yet to discover some of the other nag champas that are out there.

In the end what it comes down to is your own personal preference.  I like Tulasi Nag Champa because it is just a bit cleaner and lighter.  I like Golden Nag Champa sometimes because it is a bit “flatter” than others.  I like Goloka Nag Champa on occasion because it is a bit “muskier” than the others and I like Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa because it is well rounded, if not entirely full bodied.

So take your pick, but don’t stick with just one.  Each nag champa we sell has its own unique character and you would do yourself a disservice as a fan of nag champa not to give them all a chance.

You can start your journey here and complete it here.