Fred Soll's Incense

History

Incense has been burned by people on altars and in homes for over 5,000 years. In ancient times it was a feature of sacrificial religious ceremonies. It was used in early Judaism and, later by the Romans for religious and state ceremonies. Incense was also used by most Asian religions, the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox churches.

There are four basic types of incense - loose, cone, cylinder or stick. They are built from fragrant materials, usually consisting of aromatic gums and spices that produces a fragrant smoke when burned.  Scent choices come from berries, bark, flowers, gums, roots, leaves, seeds spices, and wood. Some herbs do not burn like they smell. There lies the skill of the incense artist. 

Today many people are searching for natural remedies to stress and illnesses.  Aromatherapy, although a modern term, has been used for thousands of years for healing. Scientists have shown that many plant essences can produce a calm, relaxed state of mind. Herbs are commonly used to treat the symptoms of PMS and depression.

Fred Soll's® Quality Ingredients

Fred Soll® uses only all-natural ingredients to produce his high-quality incense products.  Made with all-natural resin, Fred Soll® incense is handmade, hand dipped, and dried in the New Mexico Sun. 

Natural pine resins - Harvested in the Taos area of New Mexico, these resins provide the natural base to bond nature's ingredients to the incense sticks.  

Amber resin - Made from ambergris, a product of sperm whales. Whales were once hunted to supply this product to the perfume industry. Today it is painstakingly harvested from beaches. The ambergris is a by-product of the digestion of cuttlefish by the whales. It is then blended with other ingredients for curing and sold in solid form for use in incense or perfume.  

Frankincense - Truly for the connoisseur. The Frankincense resin is obtained from the leafy forest tree Boswellia Thurifera. The trees grow on the coast of Somali (Arabia) without soil, out of polished rocks. They attach themselves to the rocks with a thick oval mass of substances resembling a mixture of lime and mortar. The young trees furnish the most valuable gum. The Frankincense is harvested through creation of a deep longitudinal incision made in the trunk of the tree. Below the incision a narrow strip of bark 5 inches in length is peeled off. After a milk-like juice weeps from the tree and is hardened by exposure to the air, the incision is deepened. After approximately three months time the resin hardens into a usable consistency of yellowish 'tears'. The large, clear globules are scraped off into baskets. They are gathered from May until mid-September when the first rains arrive. Frankincense is known for its stimulating qualities.

Myrrh -  The bushes yielding the Myrrh resin grow no higher than 9 feet, are sturdy with knotted branches and branchlets that stand out at right-angles, ending in a sharp spine. The plant was first discovered in Ghizan on the Red Sea coast. This district is is so bare and dry that it is called 'Tehama' meaning 'hell'. 

The ducts in bark of the bushes and the tissues beneath break down forming large cavities. These become filled with a granular secretion. It flows as a pale yellow liquid and then hardens to a reddish-brown mass. In commerce they are seen in tears of many sizes - average that of a walnut. 

Myrrh is used as an astringent and for healing as a tonic and stimulant. It is also used as an expectorant to stimulate the mucous tissues and for appetite.