Not every moxa stick on the market actually warms the meridians and moves qi. Buy the wrong one and you're in trouble.
Telling good moxa from bad is simple. Just look at three things: color, smell, and how it burns.
Good moxa is earthy yellow. The older it is, the darker it gets-three years or more and it shifts to brownish-yellow. Before or after lighting, you get this natural, green-wood fragrance. Mild. Not sharp. Once lit, it burns slow and even, sends up thin white smoke, and the ash comes out gray-white, fine and silky to the touch.
Bad moxa? Blackened-that's mold. Or too white, which means they mixed in paper scraps or cotton. Smells off, or smells like nothing at all. Lights fast, burns fast, black smoke, black-gray ash.
If what you receive looks greenish and hits you with fresh-cut grass smell, that's new mugwort. And if you think new mugwort is better, you're wrong. New mugwort burns hot and aggressive, but it doesn't penetrate. It can damage the channels instead.
So can you tell the difference now?
