agarwooderice
Oud Fan
At the beginning of my journey I was content with Thai, Cambodian, and Burmese crassnas and really didn't dig Hindi oud, then I fell hard for super clean, modern Indonesian ouds. After a while I found myself wanting more. Al Hind shared a sample of Assam Prestige and it sent me down a Hindi rabbit hole. I purchased all of these ouds over the last four months and finally found the time to try everything side by side.
Disclaimer: I took these notes for myself but figured I might as well share. I am not an expert. I only got into the hobby about a year ago. I have a few dozen more oils and have spent quite a bit of time reading about oud, smelling oud oil on stips, wearing oud oil, and smelling oud wood (room temp and heated) but I definitely still consider myself a novice. I do not vouch for any of these vendors as I do not believe I am sufficiently qualified to do so and I have no GC/MS reports. I will not comment on specific prices nor will I provide instructions on how to purchase any of these oils. Caveat emptor...
Assam Aromas
Al Hind Oud
Oudogie
Manzar
Disclaimer: I took these notes for myself but figured I might as well share. I am not an expert. I only got into the hobby about a year ago. I have a few dozen more oils and have spent quite a bit of time reading about oud, smelling oud oil on stips, wearing oud oil, and smelling oud wood (room temp and heated) but I definitely still consider myself a novice. I do not vouch for any of these vendors as I do not believe I am sufficiently qualified to do so and I have no GC/MS reports. I will not comment on specific prices nor will I provide instructions on how to purchase any of these oils. Caveat emptor...
Assam Aromas
- Assam AS-276: Clean, sweet grass, ripe pear, slightly boozy, bitter green herbal. Has just the smallest hint of barnyard. Incredibly elegant but not the most exciting Assam Aromas offering. That said, I'll probably end up wearing it pretty often.
- Nagaland NL-283: Barnyard, fecal, leather, ripe peach. Not my favorite of the Assam Aromas ouds. Not unwearable by any means but definitely a risky pick for the office. I think I'd really enjoy a small amount of this blended with a clean, modern Hindi oud like the AS-267. Much improved with time.
- Meghalaya ML-280: Bitter medical (TCM/Ayurveda), fresh tea leaves, etherial white floral, Rainier cherry, slightest burnt phenolic quality. The burnt quality is ephemeral, on skin it plays nicely with the tea and creates an oolong accord. One of the most unique ouds in my collection full stop. I love this.
- Mizoram ML-285: Clean, boozy peach, ozonic, sweet grass, faintest fecal quality. Great depth. It doesn't wow me quite as much as ML-280 but I will definitely reach for this often. I think that a ~50/50 blend of ML-280 and ML-285 could be pretty close to perfection. A small amount of NL-283 could be a nice complement.
- Oud n Rose OR-286: Rose syrup, tart rose otto, ripe pear, lychee, sweet race fuel. Rose forward but incredibly balanced. This is Assam oud distilled in rose water from Himachal Pradesh. The rose and oud are even better integrated than I hoped they would be. I expect to reach for this one very often.
- Notes on house: Shipping outside of India is extraordinarily expensive. I only took the plunge because I was able to have it shipped to an Indian address and had someone hand carry my package back to the US. After a very long wait it would've been very easy to be disappointed by anything less than stellar. Fortunately all five available offerings were great. Nice packages for the price too. Assam Aromas doesn't just feel like the next "shiny new toy" for me, I don't think the novelty will wear off soon. I enjoy these oils but I do find that their projection is a little weaker than I expected, not inherently a bad thing.
Al Hind Oud
- Assam Prestige: Stewed raspberry, umeshu, damp mulch, Saphir shoe polish. For me, it doesn't get much better than this. I started with a sample, then I got a gram, then a quarter tola. I don't typically cross the $100/g threshold but this is tough to beat.
- Notes on house: So far I've only tied Assam Prestige and Firdous Royale but both are great. I know I need to try more from him. My initial sample was generously provided free.
Oudogie
- Manipur: Slightly sharp, damp mulch, dark chocolate. Not bad but not incredibly exciting. I've had this for a few months and don't reach for it often. I'll probably blend this with an equally inoffensive but unexciting crassna at some point to see if the blend is better than the sum of its parts.
- Upper Assam: Clean, damp hay, slightly sweet, leather. This feels pretty close to the middle of the spectrum. Prototypical middle of the road Hindi. Not full on classic or full on modern.
- Hindi Qadeem: Sharp, damp mulch, earthy, almost petrichor. This was my first Hindi oud. To be honest, I found it very challenging when I first got it about a year ago. It kept me from exploring Hindi for several months. I warmed up to it slowly and definitely appreciate it much more than I did at first but I never really give it any time on skin.
- Notes on house: I am not sure how many more Ouds I'll buy from this house. Everything I've tried from them has provided acceptable value and their variety is pretty tough to beat. I would definitely recommend them to someone new to oud looking to get into the hobby. If you're looking to try a little bit of everything without breaking the bank, you could do worse than Oudologie.
Manzar
- Black Trinity: Fermented stonefruit, savory, slightly burnt, petrol, slight blue cheese. This is my first time revisiting this one in a little while. I think I like it more this time but will need to try it on skin before I know if it's going to end up in the regular rotation.
- Meghalaya: Slightly sharp, damp hay, leather. This is another one I don't reach for often. I spend more time with this strip than many of the others. It drew me in more than I expected but in the end still didn't totally wow me.
- Mikir Hills (Assam, 2016): Clean, slightly sharp, damp moss, barnyard, sweet grass. Sometimes first impressions are lasting impressions. This was my favorite of the Manzars when I first got them a few months back. I reach for this one with some degree of frequency. It might not be one of my top five Hindi ouds in my collection but it's sufficiently unique that it will stay in rotation.
- Vintage 2010 (Assam): Bitter chocolate, slightly sharp, a little ozonic, damp wood. This is great stuff on a strip but it just doesn't work as well on my skin as I'd like it to. It doesn't wear poorly, it just doesn't click for me like Manzar's Mikir Hills does.
- Notes on house: Very compelling value. These are among the least expensive ouds in my collection. I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of these oils but I am somewhat skeptical that the 2010 and Mikir Hills are actually from 2010 and 2016 respectively. It's not that they present as more youthful than they should, I just take all claimed vintages with a big spoonful of salt, especially claims from someone who is relatively new to the scene (online at least). The oils themselves seem unadulterated but the specs seem a little too good to be true.
