Grading

At the Frankincense Store we take great pride in our resins, thus ensuring all our resins are carefully separated by its colour size and smell. This process is called ‘Grading’. Grading can take up to a couple of weeks. Frankincense has been classified into four types according to its degree of excellence. The finest and highest quality is ElHojari, which is the product of the trees that grow in the Eastern part of the area. Next comes the second grade, which is known by the name ElNajdi, and its trees grows in the Najd area, north of central Dhofar mountains. The third class is called Elshazri, and its trees grow in the western area that lies between Elnajd and the rainfall areas. The lowest good quality of frankincense is called ElShabi, whose trees grow in the coastal plain and in the valleys, where rainfall is adequate. Once the frankincense arrives at our store, each resin is carefully separated by hand in to several baskets, which hold each of the different sorted grades. First the larger pieces are separated from the smaller ones. Then, Hojari from the ElNajd and ElShabi Grades. Simultaneously the tree bark and other impurities such as twigs and stones is removed from the sacks, Once this process has been completed the second stage of the grading starts. The Hojari pieces are once again separated by its colour, even though all the pieces look similar. Only under white lighting can you see the difference. This process involves the grading of our yellow, orange, amber and royal resins. Whilst grading these resins we look out for our rare Green Hojari Frankincense, which has amazing medicinal properties. To identify this piece, the individual resin has to be examined under white light to make sure that it is exactly green, as sometimes it can be similar to yellow pieces under the naked eye. To further grade the Hojari it goes through the final third stage of fine grading under natural light to verify its colour.
 Once the Hojari frankincense has been graded we start on the other grades. The mixed frankincense is the smaller pieces of all the resins, which is usually at the base of the sacks. Once all our grades have been classified and approved we collect all the powder from the resins and store this in to another container, which can be used for creams, soaps, candles and oil burners.