Incense for the Tea Table: How to Use Sandalwood Sticks and a Boshan Burner

In Chinese tradition, tea, incense, flowers and painting are the four quiet arts of a scholar's table. They do sit together well, but there is one practical catch: dry tea leaves absorb smells very easily. Treat incense as part of the room, not part of the cup, and the two get along.

Keep the scent away from the tea

Before anything else, a few rules.

• Store tea away from the burner. Sealed tins or jars, and never the same shelf as an incense box. The advice in how to store tea matters even more here.
• Light the incense before you start, not while you handle dry leaf. Let the smoke settle for a few minutes first, then brew.
• Ventilate. A slightly open window keeps the scent soft instead of heavy.
• Do not put incense directly beside the pot or cups. Give it its own corner of the table.

Sandalwood sticks

Sandalwood is the classic, calm scent for a tea session: warm, woody and quiet, so it does not compete with the aroma of the tea. Our Haze sandalwood incense comes as 21 cm sticks. You can snap a stick in half for a shorter session.

To use a stick:

1. Light the tip until it glows, then blow out the flame. 2. Place it upright in a holder so that the ash falls into a tray. 3. Never leave burning incense unattended and keep it away from paper, fabric and children.

A simple porcelain incense holder with a small hole and a shallow dish is all you need, and the dish catches the ash.

What is a Boshan burner

A Boshan burner (博山爐) is one of the oldest classic burner shapes in China, going back to the Han dynasty. It is a footed bowl with a pierced lid shaped like a mountain, named after the legendary mountain Bo Shan. Smoke rises through the openwork and curls out of the lid like mist over a peak. It is used with incense coils or a charcoal-free burner setup, and it is a piece to look at as much as to use. Ours is a copper Boshan burner with an antique-style finish.

Always place a burner on a heat-safe surface.

Building the corner

A small, quiet corner works better than a big display: a tray, a burner or holder, and maybe a cup of tea. See all incense and atmosphere items, and if you are building the tea side as well, start with gongfu brewing.