Wood, cut, and nothing done to it after that. This is the oldest form and the simplest one.
Light the end until a flame takes, which can take a few seconds. Blow it out so only the smoke is left, and walk it through the room with a window open.
Six to a pack, machine-cut to the same size rather than split, so each one stands on its own. The color runs from pale yellow to deep amber depending on where in the log the piece came from.
Cut, not chopped · Palo santo is usually split with an axe or a knife, which is quick and gives you a bag where every piece is a different shape. These are the same length and square in section.
Nothing is taken out · A great deal of the palo santo on the market is what is left after the oil has been distilled out of it for perfume. The wood gets sold on afterwards, which is why so much of it smells faint and feels empty. No oil has been taken out of ours.
The wood · Palo santo is gathered from trees and branches that have fallen and died on their own, which is also where the most fragrant wood comes from. Peru's regulations permit nothing else to be collected.
Ours was gathered in Peru between 1989 and 1995, and it has been aging in Taiwan ever since.
