Most people know frankincense from one story. Fewer know what it actually is: the dried sap of the Boswellia tree, harvested by hand in the Horn of Africa, southern Arabia, and a few other places where almost nothing else grows.
From tree to tear
Harvesters make small, careful cuts in the bark — a practice called tapping. The tree responds by weeping a milky sap that hardens in the sun over weeks into translucent droplets. They're called tears, and once you've seen resin form, the name is obvious.
The best tears — the largest, clearest, most aromatic — are graded first. That's Grade I, and it's all we sell. Lower grades go to bulk incense and extraction.
How to burn it
Resin doesn't burn like a stick of incense — it melts. You need a heat source: a charcoal disc in a heat-safe burner, or an electric resin burner. Light the charcoal, wait until it glows, place two or three tears on top, and let the smoke do the rest. Ten minutes fills a room; the scent lingers for hours.
What it smells like
Warm, balsamic, slightly citrus at the top, wood and honey underneath. Boswellia carterii — our species — is the classic frankincense profile: the one that's accompanied prayer, meditation, and daily life for over five thousand years.
New to resin? Start with the 28g pouch — a few weeks of quiet evenings. The Resin →