Frankincense Tears Resin

These are whole tears of frankincense, the hardened sap tapped by hand from the gnarled trunks of Boswellia sacra growing wild across the Dhofar groves of Oman. Pale gold and brittle enough to snap cleanly between the fingers, they carry the grade known as hojari, prized above the darker, softer grades cut from trees at lower, hotter elevations along the coast. Even unburned, a tear held close smells faintly of resin, dust, and old stone. Frankincense has been burned in temples from Egypt to Jerusalem for some four thousand years, one of the gifts said to have been carried to Bethlehem and among the most valued incenses of the ancient world, worth at times as much as gold by weight. It has never really left ritual use since, still the scent behind a great many churches, temples, and home altars today. Frankincense needs a glowing charcoal disc rather than a direct flame; a lit match will only scorch it and waste the resin. Set one or two tears on the coal once it has grayed over, and let the smoke rise slow and faintly blue rather than thick and black, which signals the coal is too hot. Sold as a curiosity — no medical or scientific claims are made.