ain soph aur
Oud Fanatic
mai wan lao agar aura - a bittersweet symphony soothing my weary mind and aching body
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Oud of the Day
- Thread starter jalil
- Start date
HoneyBear
Oud Fanatic
jinkoh Store : emperor of Brunei ... this oil, its like I'm a drifting in the ocean I can stretches of blue all around and clear skies, mint on the air goes up my nose cooling my brain to zen levels , this oil is BLUE and true to that , blue has been one of the profiles I like a lot so this oil speaks to me.
ain soph aur
Oud Fanatic
koh song agar aura - this one has it all. steely jungle purple floral musk, unami, resinous wood, leather, sun warmed spices, bittersweet poison. very happy i picked this one up.
ain soph aur
Oud Fanatic
sylhet supreme - imperial oud.
dark chocolate, creamy barn, tanned leather. a reminder of why i enjoy oud so dearly. yes, new gen technique higher priced oils are amazing with piercing top notes and "buzz" factor but i get a different kind of high from these deep intense base heavy ouds. i think i prefer them for overall experience and cost effectiveness. i know my wallet would concur.
dark chocolate, creamy barn, tanned leather. a reminder of why i enjoy oud so dearly. yes, new gen technique higher priced oils are amazing with piercing top notes and "buzz" factor but i get a different kind of high from these deep intense base heavy ouds. i think i prefer them for overall experience and cost effectiveness. i know my wallet would concur.
Mr.P
oud<3er
Going through a grandawood cultivated oil sampler. Mostly Thai oils. What is interesting to me is the way in which they are able to modulate the top notes for the initial sense of the oil.
I smell in the top notes of their oils notes I associate with many different oud regions and styles I have encountered over the years.
This has me very curious because on one hand I’m finding a lot of freshly distilled oils (esp Thai) to all have a common bitter almond / benzaldehyde / marzipan / sweet sour fruitiness that turns my stomach, but none of their freshly distilled oils carry this profile.
I don’t know what they are doing or how they process their oils but this variety and lack of benzaldehyde suggests to me they have mastery of pre-soak, distillation technique, or controlled aging / oxidation or SOMETHING.
Most of these oils are not spectacular but they do not smell like cookie cutter fresh marzipan oud either and I can’t help but wonder if they will mature into oils with deep beauty. There’s one in the mix that smells like Al shareef Ameen in the top note, another that smells like classic ME funky oud, another that resembles the “sweet trat” from pureoudh that was getting high praises, another smells like a long soak Malaysian just a tad.
So many scent profiles out of cultivated wood from Thailand. Again has me wondering about the interaction of the starting material and extraction method and to what degree regional profiles reflect the biology of the plant versus local traditions for extraction.
I would highly recommend getting one of their sample kits maybe splitting it with someone if you’re not interested in buying their oils but just to see what range of profiles are possible from one facility
I smell in the top notes of their oils notes I associate with many different oud regions and styles I have encountered over the years.
This has me very curious because on one hand I’m finding a lot of freshly distilled oils (esp Thai) to all have a common bitter almond / benzaldehyde / marzipan / sweet sour fruitiness that turns my stomach, but none of their freshly distilled oils carry this profile.
I don’t know what they are doing or how they process their oils but this variety and lack of benzaldehyde suggests to me they have mastery of pre-soak, distillation technique, or controlled aging / oxidation or SOMETHING.
Most of these oils are not spectacular but they do not smell like cookie cutter fresh marzipan oud either and I can’t help but wonder if they will mature into oils with deep beauty. There’s one in the mix that smells like Al shareef Ameen in the top note, another that smells like classic ME funky oud, another that resembles the “sweet trat” from pureoudh that was getting high praises, another smells like a long soak Malaysian just a tad.
So many scent profiles out of cultivated wood from Thailand. Again has me wondering about the interaction of the starting material and extraction method and to what degree regional profiles reflect the biology of the plant versus local traditions for extraction.
I would highly recommend getting one of their sample kits maybe splitting it with someone if you’re not interested in buying their oils but just to see what range of profiles are possible from one facility
EJayB
True Ouddict
I’ll I love that almond , cherry note that you speak of , soaking will distort the true smell of the wood if allowed to ferment and you can also alter the top note performance buy altering the distillation temps and methods of collecting the oil and how you deal with the return hydrosol and the small amount of oil remaining in it. I understand that fermentation is a part of the culture of oud but to me as a distiller I’m looking to capture the essence of the wood not adhering to cultural norms or expectations but true essential oil of the materials as provided by nature . That’s just my personal goal in distilling. It’s possible to take 1 type of wood and distill it different ways and get oils totally different from 1 another ,very common
Mr.P
oud<3er
I think in a healthy oud market place we would have all the different varieties and my personal preference for collecting aligns with yours. It is fantastic that we have straight up extractions for reference, and I can see how the new top notes are delightful especially when it has other elements mixed in like in some of your amazing top end crazy violet fresh floral cucumber twang sinensis oils. I’m almost certain in the long run the directly distilled oils are going to end up smelling MUCH nicer as time goes on.
Case in point, I don’t have any interest in buying 90% of those grandawood oils other than as samples because while they have the heavily modified top notes, they also feel less rich and are milder in impact.
My largest single bottle is of one of those benzaldehyde topnote oils from Russian Adam. I can’t wear much of it now but I can tell every year it gets better and in about five years it’s going to be perfect.
I think those crazy small batch direct distilled wild top note oils will blow all of our minds in 10-15 years and we are all going to wish we bought a liter of them. I suspect these small batch oils will hold their own against the legends of the last 15 years or so once they mature.
Case in point, I don’t have any interest in buying 90% of those grandawood oils other than as samples because while they have the heavily modified top notes, they also feel less rich and are milder in impact.
My largest single bottle is of one of those benzaldehyde topnote oils from Russian Adam. I can’t wear much of it now but I can tell every year it gets better and in about five years it’s going to be perfect.
I think those crazy small batch direct distilled wild top note oils will blow all of our minds in 10-15 years and we are all going to wish we bought a liter of them. I suspect these small batch oils will hold their own against the legends of the last 15 years or so once they mature.
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Mr.P
oud<3er
And in the US 20 years ago people would’ve laughed in your face if you asked about being able to get your hands on a pure small batch agarwood oils for any kind of money. Course it was just ignorance about the rest of the world but I’m just amazed at what we can get today. It really is the golden age of agarwood here in the west now.
Oudamberlove
Member
Mr.P
oud<3er
I was smelling viet K that I am lucky enough to have a small sample thanks to ejayb and I can smell something heartbreakingly beautiful emerging in that one. It’s funny because I get a glimpse of this certain ”dense oily” heart that I don’t know how to describe but I smell it in good old oils - the original “oud royale” and some older Singapore ouds I have share this note.
Who in their right minds (in the US at least) would have suspected 20 years ago that we were going to have artisanal cultivated kyara and Vietnamese oils locally distilled under pristine conditions without 5 middlemen? It’s a miracle.
Who in their right minds (in the US at least) would have suspected 20 years ago that we were going to have artisanal cultivated kyara and Vietnamese oils locally distilled under pristine conditions without 5 middlemen? It’s a miracle.
Taesik Yun
Attar Yun
@Oudamberlove I feel the urge to get another bottle of Lindaraja 👀👀
I've learned from Taha that distillers can modify top notes via techniques such as soaking, distillation parameters, etc. Think smoke, cheese, barn, funk, syrup sweet, steely, "airy", etc. And I've learned from another distiller that seasoned distillers can indeed impart any one or combination of such aromas into the oil through various techniques.
I suspect that this is done for low quality wood which does not offer a full spectrum of aroma in order to increase the complexity of an oil. Otherwise, the low quality wood distilled to maintain the aroma of the wood would be very linear!
Taha had released an oil called Kayu Melayu with the sole purpose to illustrate this point. It was super clean oil but linear from top to down without any additional notes. Had he wished, he could have utilized techniques to add top notes and increase the complexity of the oil. In contrast, Cambodi smoke from Habz has the smoky aroma on top followed by the Cambodian oud core.
More can be stated on this topic 😊
Al Shareef Oudh
Master Perfumer
If we park the fermentation aspect for a moment because the general incorrect presumption is that any barn like note is from fermentation.
A skilled distiller will be able to distill a spectrum of profiles from the wood, just utilising parameters such as temperature of the pot, amount of water vs wood in the pot, control of how quick the steam is cooled down, how much steam is rising, whether it is a single run where hydrosol is not fed back or a loop where they hydrosol is fed back into the pot, continuous run or pauses in between etc.
Soaking without fermentation, has affect on some woods and not on others. But soaking without fermentation can also contribute to profile from two aspects, releasing deeper oils and secondly not allowing the wood to burn.
One of the things that has taken over hugely is setups that feedback the hydrosol back, and this was not a practice in the past. We used to just sit it out for the full duration of the distillation. For ease now many systems can run 24/7 without much interference because the water doesn't run out it feedback in. The issue with that is, it is no longer water, it is water with some oil and other compounds and it does cause further breakdown of the woods. It is easily noticeable the later oils from a loop system begin to sink.
In short, it isn't nothing new that from the one wood different profiles are achieved however it is within a spectrum of what is possible from that wood, it is a finite range.
A skilled distiller will be able to distill a spectrum of profiles from the wood, just utilising parameters such as temperature of the pot, amount of water vs wood in the pot, control of how quick the steam is cooled down, how much steam is rising, whether it is a single run where hydrosol is not fed back or a loop where they hydrosol is fed back into the pot, continuous run or pauses in between etc.
Soaking without fermentation, has affect on some woods and not on others. But soaking without fermentation can also contribute to profile from two aspects, releasing deeper oils and secondly not allowing the wood to burn.
One of the things that has taken over hugely is setups that feedback the hydrosol back, and this was not a practice in the past. We used to just sit it out for the full duration of the distillation. For ease now many systems can run 24/7 without much interference because the water doesn't run out it feedback in. The issue with that is, it is no longer water, it is water with some oil and other compounds and it does cause further breakdown of the woods. It is easily noticeable the later oils from a loop system begin to sink.
In short, it isn't nothing new that from the one wood different profiles are achieved however it is within a spectrum of what is possible from that wood, it is a finite range.
EJayB
True Ouddict
So many different ways to run the distillation with so many effects on the outcome. Oud is more rewarding to distill then anything else I’ve worked with because of the challenges understanding and controlling the many aspects of creating the finished oil
It’s not so straight forward as most things
And what one person makes might not smell like what someone else has made from the exact same wood.
It’s not so straight forward as most things
And what one person makes might not smell like what someone else has made from the exact same wood.
Rai Munir
Musk Man
Today, I wore three Oud oils and one attar four times, and each oil made me love them from the deepest core of my heart:
1. Borneo Ateeq by Habz: Beuatiful into beautiful. Clean Oud with rich Borneoesque flare.
2. Oud Ashoka by Dr Prasun: It haunted and haunts me more than Borneo does, buy it is just a personal preference. It is like smearing Oud resin on the wrist. No skank and funk, but clean.
3. King Cambodi by Ensar: Elegant deep and clean Cambodi aroma lurks in the air for long.
4. Musk Rose Attar: Fresh Musk was macerated in Nangarhar Rose, and I know the worth of both the ingredinets.
A big day it is; otherwise, I don't wear Oud that many times a day.
Sorry to use the word 'CLEAN' in brief takes of mine😜. For the last day, out of nowhere this word CLEAN has turned to be the outcome of acid and many more bla bla blas. I was sent a screenshot of a CLEAN statement (by Ensar) which reads: REPEAT AFTER ME...., and I couldn't help but laugh, and recalled innumerable reviews on Gaharu (when I was active member there years before) in which a lot many Oud oils by Ensar were CLEAN.
Any way, today I swiped CLEAN oils with a thuming heart that my wrists might not have blotches due to swiping ACID Oud.
AnywaY!
1. Borneo Ateeq by Habz: Beuatiful into beautiful. Clean Oud with rich Borneoesque flare.
2. Oud Ashoka by Dr Prasun: It haunted and haunts me more than Borneo does, buy it is just a personal preference. It is like smearing Oud resin on the wrist. No skank and funk, but clean.
3. King Cambodi by Ensar: Elegant deep and clean Cambodi aroma lurks in the air for long.
4. Musk Rose Attar: Fresh Musk was macerated in Nangarhar Rose, and I know the worth of both the ingredinets.
A big day it is; otherwise, I don't wear Oud that many times a day.
Sorry to use the word 'CLEAN' in brief takes of mine😜. For the last day, out of nowhere this word CLEAN has turned to be the outcome of acid and many more bla bla blas. I was sent a screenshot of a CLEAN statement (by Ensar) which reads: REPEAT AFTER ME...., and I couldn't help but laugh, and recalled innumerable reviews on Gaharu (when I was active member there years before) in which a lot many Oud oils by Ensar were CLEAN.
Any way, today I swiped CLEAN oils with a thuming heart that my wrists might not have blotches due to swiping ACID Oud.
AnywaY!
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