Charcoal

48 small charcoal briquettes in a box. This is high quality bamboo charcoal (1 X ½ X 3/8 inches) made by Shoyeido and is fragrance free and has no additives. This charcoal fits perfectly in the metal charcoal holder of the portable incense burner or it can be used on white ash in a cup or bowl-shaped incense burner to heat agarwood chips or powder.

In Japan, after the charcoal is lighted it is placed on white ash until about 1/2 has burned. A small amount of ash is then placed over the charcoal and the piece of agarwood is placed on top of the ash. This allows the agarwood chip to slowly heat and release its aromatic compounds without combustion. In other countries, however, the agarwood is just placed directly on the hot charcoal in an incense burner and the resins are released quickly as the agarwood burns. When burning agarwood, most of the volatile compounds rise quickly to the top of the room. The aroma of pure agarwood is best after a few minutes when the fragrance has filtered down and becomes dispersed throughout the room.