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While browsing the stalls at the Christmas market, small wooden figures with wide “O”s for mouths and pipes in their hands might well have caught your eye. These dapper gents often come dressed in the garb or holding the implements of traditional professions such as bakers, woodsmen, hunters, miners or chimney sweeps. German incense smokers such as these trace their origins back to around 1850 and come from the Saxony town of Seiffen in the Erzgebirge mountains, not far from the Czech border.
Should you have found yourself seduced by the old-world charm of a diminutive “Räuchermann” and impulsively taken one home with you, the question becomes what to feed him?
Your new friend is a smoker, and as his enabler, you’ll need to get hold of his substance of choice, incense cones. Insert a lit one into his belly and smoke will drift out of his mouth and fill your home with the essence of the holidays.
While incense cones are made by various companies, today we examine the products of a company called KNOX. The company traces its start back to 1865, just as incense smoker men were gaining in popularity. Before this, incense had mainly been used as a disinfectant or for medicinal purposes and bought at a pharmacy. But with incense’s ages-old association with religious rites and as part the traditional gifts of the Three Wise Men (frankincense and myrrh), its pairing with Christmas was a natural one.
The composition of incense is explained by the label on a box of the stuff: “today, the incense sticks from the KNOX brand still remain true to the well-kept secret recipes of the chemist who invented them. Natural, aromatic ingredients like exotic tree resins, rare roots and barks, fragrant blossoms and flavorful spices are freshly ground, processed right away and carefully dried. Only in this way is it possible to preserve the natural essence that gives KNOX incense cones their unmistakable aroma and traditional fragrance.”
Like many German companies, KNOX rolls with the times, and in addition to traditional fragrances such as pine, myrrh, forest honey, sandalwood and “Christmas scent,” today’s consumers can add fragrance to their homes in the aromas of lavender, baked apple, candied almonds, marzipan, lemon, orange, green tea, caffe latte and opium.
Travel tip: the Knox Incense Museum in Mohorn-Grund exhibits products and packaging dating as far back as 1865, presents facts about the history of burning incense as practiced around the world, and reveals the raw materials and ingredients used in the production of its cones. There’s also a shop where you can stock up on all the incense needed to keep you and your smoker man happy for many years to come.
