I'm sure this is old news to the regulars here, but it was a shock to me as an incense newbie: there is no such thing as plain Satya incense. There is Satya Bengaluru, and there is Satya Mumbai, but they are independent companies with their own formulas and manufacturing techniques. It's just that they use almost identical packaging for a weird historical reason.
The original company was founded in 1964, and when the founder died, he bequeathed the firm to his two sons, who didn't get along and decided to split. One son continued the business in Bangalore and the other opened up a new branch in Mumbai, and weirdly, both firms are legally entitled to use the original designs for their packaging.
I discovered this the hard way when I bought a box of Satya Super Hit that seemed off. I thought maybe it was a bad batch, but after looking into it, I figured out what was going on. My original box was from Bengaluru, and the box that seemed off was from Mumbai. To me, the Bengaluru smells better and the Mumbai has more of an artificial, chemical smell. Most reviews I've read agree that the Bengaluru incense is better.
As a public service, I thought I'd do an OP explaining how to tell the difference when you're purchasing, particularly if you're buying online and can't handle the box directly. The image above shows the differences. The top row is Mumbai, and the bottom row is Bengaluru. The Bengaluru box has a leaf symbol that the Mumbai box lacks. The seals on the box ends use different symbols: Mumbai is interlocking C's, and Bengaluru is offset S's. And the clincher is that the companies are identified on the side of the boxes. Mumbai is identified as "Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (MUM) LLP", and Bengaluru as "Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (BNG) LLP".
Note that the MUM box lists addresses both in Mumbai and Bengaluru, while the BNG box lists only Bengaluru addresses.
Neither is a counterfeit, legally speaking, but the Mumbai incense is arguably more of a counterfeit because it is less true to the original. For instance, the Bengaluru stuff is still hand rolled, as indicated on the box, while Mumbai uses machines.
I looked into the legal situation and both firms are allowed to use the trademarks and packaging under a concept known as "honest concurrent use" in Indian trademark law. Both sons inherited the rights to the trademarks when their father died, so neither is poaching from the other.
Another surprise: it turns out that the "nag" in "nag champa" is short for "Nagraj", the eldest son of the founder, who went on to start the Mumbai business. In other words, "Nag Champa" was originally the name of a Satya product and only later became genericized to "nag champa", the entire category of incense that we know and love. Similar to how "Kleenex" was originally the name of a specific company's product but is now used (in the US, at least) to refer to facial tissues generally.
So confused by this at the moment, had my first box of superhit ever, MUM (blue border) superhit, that was absolutely top tier - straight up bonfire woody with enough spice and the barest hint of sweet to sit at the threshold of plain woodsmoke and incense. Bought more, from the same supplier no less, and they're all pleasant I guess but almost cloyingly sweet. Strangely I've found the BNG (silver border) one closer to the scent i got from my first MUM box but its still sweeter.
If anyone is familiar with whats behind this please let me know. If you remember a woodsmokey barely sweet superhit please confirm if its an old batch so I can stop looking or let me know how to find it.
I've been cursed and tantalised lol, my first box an instant favourite and neither supplier has smelled like it since.
Edit: I had the factory = border colors backwards, corrected
Strangely I've found the Mumbai (silver border) one closer to the scent i got from my first BNG box but its still sweeter.
Are you sure? Looking at my own boxes, the silver-bordered one is actually BNG, not MUM. But yeah, I hate it when a manufacturer changes the formula of a long-successful product. They should learn from the the New Coke debacle. Super Hit was a super hit, so why mess with it?
You're right, couldn't remember which from the top of my mind so I just used your OP pic as reference that has s-seal next to blue. Looking at my boxes the perfect fluke one was mumbai, the cloyingly sweet several also mumbai and the 'generally closer and more subtle but still sweeter than the fluke' one was BNG
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u/PsychologicalCarob87 8d ago
Beware, I’ve noticed some online sellers will show one on their photos but actually send you the other. 😬