About The Company
‘Like a fine chef, Fred has perfected the art of blending and preparing his incense. Each batch is an intricate, time-intensive process that can take four weeks or more to complete. The incense is repeatedly hand-dipped into pure resins and oils, then carefully sprinkled with herbs and/or powders before being set aside to dry. This manual process is labor-intensive, but the results are unmistakable. Designed to be burned horizontally rather than vertically, each stick of Fred Soll’s® incense burns for 1 to 2½ hours, depending on the scent. Fred refuses to compromise on quality, using only the finest pure resins, herbs, powders, and oils in every batch.
History
Fred Soll was born in the 1940s in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Pace University with a degree in Marketing and Business Administration as well as a degree in Nutrition.
The first turning point in Fred’s life came in 1972, when an old friend named Jerry—whom he hadn’t seen in several years—tracked him down and asked to meet in New York City. During their meeting, Jerry told Fred he had joined the Hare Krishnas and offered him a job selling Hare Krishna incense throughout New York State. Fred accepted the offer, and after several successful years in the incense sales business, he relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Fred credits his friend Genoa with inspiring him to create resin incense. One day, Genoa approached him holding a handful of sticky piñon resin harvested from the piñon trees of New Mexico and said, “Fred, you know all about incense—why don’t you try making incense from this pure resin?”
That simple question marked the beginning of Fred Soll’s® pure resin incense.
Ode to Joy
Fred’s life changed again when he met his wife, Joy, in 1996. She later joined him in the business and helped expand it by creating a website—an idea Fred was initially unsure about. Over time, the website became a steady and essential part of the business, even sustaining Fred Soll’s® during difficult economic times. Customers shared that Fred Soll’s® incense helped them feel better about themselves and about life.
We fell in love, way back when.
And we’re more in love today
Because of Joy, Fred says, the business started to succeed. As Joy will say “I work like a dog, I have no vacation, little money, but I’m having fun!” In 2003, the business moved east of Albuquerque, to the village of Tijeras.
The Fred Soll Team
Joy manages and runs everything in the business, including the office staff who manage the wholesale, web orders, and retail store.
Fred makes the incense, by hand, with a few trusted employees.
Matthew
Local families pick up the freshly made incense and take it home to pack up in the bags.
Rose
Our pinon is picked by Rose and her team. She climbs up the pinon trees and will gather hundreds of pounds of the resin for us to use in our incense.
In the News & Around the World
Fred & Joy enjoy the friendship and royal treatment from “Rock Stars” and famous people, including Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top and Rick Allen of Def Leppard. Rick Allen mentioned Fred Soll in his “Mirror Ball” CD insert.
Fred Soll’s incense has been mentioned in magazines such as: In Style, Domino, New Age Retailer, Traditional Home, Shop Etc. and the New Mexico Magazine. Fred and Joy have been spotlighted, on TV, in a segment called “Made in New Mexico.” They have also been written about in Newspapers and books.
Most recently, the incense was listed in Mel Robbins’ “5 things she obsessed with..”
