Two Hour Incense Coils

Incense wound into a coil, so one lighting lasts about two hours.

A coil burns from the outside in and needs no tending, which is why it is the form kept for a long sitting, an afternoon of work, or a room being aired after guests. Three scents: mugwort, the sharp green leaf burned in Chinese homes at the start of summer; cliff cypress from the Taihang mountains, dry and resinous; and agarwood, the dark heartwood that has been the reference scent of temples for a thousand years.

Each scent comes in its own lidded tub. Burn on a coil holder or in a pierced incense box, with a window open a crack.