Peruvian Black Copal (Bursera Copallifera), 25 gr

Peruvian black copal - dark, dense resin tears from Bursera copallifera, the Andean cousin of Mexico's white copal. Same Burseraceae family, different species, different aromatic register: darker, smokier, with a deeper resinous body on charcoal.

The Material

Bursera copallifera is the principal copal-producing species of Peru and the wider Andean region - sister-genus to the Mexican Bursera bipinnata that produces white copal, and to Bursera graveolens that produces palo santo from the dry forests further south. The Burseraceae family stretches across the New World with several species producing resinous saps prized in pre-Columbian aromatic traditions; the Peruvian black copal carries the deepest, darkest character of the three.

The Andean copal tradition has its own continuity - pre-Inka and Inka cultures burned copals and palo santo in domestic and material practice across what is now Peru, with the dry forests of the northern Peruvian coast and the Andean highlands providing the trees. Modern commercial harvest continues from the same regions.

The details

• Botanical: Bursera copallifera

• Family: Burseraceae - same family as frankincense, myrrh, palo santo, white copal

• Resin: Black copal · Andean grade · dark resin tears

• Origin: Peru

• Weight: 25g

• Format: Glass jar · resin pieces

• Storage: Cool, dry · away from direct light · indefinite shelf life

• Burn behavior: Chars more readily than white copal · slower build than frankincense

• Burn behavior: Melts and pools on charcoal · less char residue than frankincense

Worth knowing

The catalogue carries two different products under the "Black Copal" trade name - this Peruvian Bursera copallifera from the Andean range, and a Mexican Protium grandifolium known as Black Copal Intenso. Same trade name, two different genera within the Burseraceae family, two different countries, two distinct aromatic registers. Same trade-names-honesty principle as the catalogue's two Blue Sages (Mexican Salvia azurea and Turkish Salvia libanotica) and the trade-name disclosures for Cedar, Tiger Eye, and Apple Jade. The wider Burseraceae family is one of the most aromatically significant plant families in human history - it produces frankincense in Arabia, myrrh in Yemen and the Horn of Africa, palo santo in Peru and Ecuador, and copal across both Mexico and the Andes. Same family, four continents.

This Product

Peruvian Black Copal - dark, dense resin tears from Bursera copallifera, the Andean copal of pre-Inka and contemporary Peruvian tradition. Sister-species to the Mexican Bursera bipinnata that produces white copal, with a deeper aromatic register: smokier, darker, with hints of cedar and earthy balsam on charcoal.

The Burseraceae family connects this resin to the wider arc of aromatic chemistry across continents - same family produces frankincense in Arabia, myrrh in Yemen, palo santo also in Peru, and the lighter white copal in Mexico.

25g glass jar. Distinct from the Mexican Black Copal Intenso (Protium grandifolium) which sits in a different genus within the same family.