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To answer your aromatic inquiry, we took a quick peek at Yahoo!'s Incense category. We found plenty of commercial vendors, each proclaiming their own "secret recipe" for the perfect joss stick. But no recipes... Whenever we're in doubt, we consult the encyclopedia. In this case, Encyclopedia Britannica provided some very useful facts. Incense has five main ingredients: wood pulp; potassium nitrate (to light the incense); an adhesive such as gum arabic; water; and an aromatic material. The aroma generally comes from various woods and resins, such as cedar or frankincense. In our herbs section, we stumbled across a wonderful tutorial on how to make incense. This step-by-step guide offers a recipe for sandalwood incense, from the basic gluey material to the final coated sticks or sculpted cones. Hint: don't experiment with peppermint. It tastes great, but gives off an acrid smoke when burned. Finally, incense isn't all frankincense and myrrh. At Anna's Incense, a popular online vendor, you'll find bucketloads of curious aromas: banana, rose, peaches, apple pie, mint chocolate, bubble gum, Drakkar, etc. The sky's the limit as far as smelly stuff is concerned.
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