Oud Oil 101

saint458

Well-Known Member
That's the best way to make sure your oils will last a long time, stock-up on more oils:)
Agreed.
Eventually wild stuffs will be harder to find anymore anywhere. The only solution is stocking as much as possible.

(* I use OUDs in sample vials in order to not to waste OUD _ spend carefully _ I always try to use only the necessary amount _ whenever apply from any of them I try to ENJOY it till it lasts & guess what ! I'm desperately trying to arrange money to stock more because REAL OUDS will be much more expensive in near future.)
 

kesiro

Well-Known Member
Agree with you on all your points. No doubt wild oud is going to be available primarily from wood harvested previously which has a finite supply. There will always be cultivated oils but the financial pressure to harvest as early as possible means the quality will be blah.
 
I was just watching Part one of "Ensar and Taha" and I saw that when brother Taha was sampling an oil that Ensar had given him, he took the oil on his finger and tasted it. I was wondering, What are the benefits to tasting oud, as in what more information would he get out of the oud by tasting rather than smelling. Also i'd like to add, if I were to taste a synthetic oil I would probably not have a good time, or even a perfume for that matter, but it is simply amazing to me that oud is so natural that it is perfectly fine to taste it. Trust me, I am a customer to all of you for life!
 

PEARL

Well-Known Member
Totally agree on the for life part! I see no escape.

While I've never had enough kyara or kinam wood to try tasting it, it's said that kyara/kinam wood produces a numbing effect on the tongue. I'd venture to say that he tasted the oil because he smelled some kyara like/kinamic notes in the oil and wanted to see if the oil would numb his mouth.
 
Totally agree on the for life part! I see no escape.

While I've never had enough kyara or kinam wood to try tasting it, it's said that kyara/kinam wood produces a numbing effect on the tongue. I'd venture to say that he tasted the oil because he smelled some kyara like/kinamic notes in the oil and wanted to see if the oil would numb his mouth.
Yes it is indeed true about the numbing effect of Kyara on the tongue. Though I have only tasted it on a few occasions, generally the higher the Kyara quality the more numbing effect it will be. As what Taha had once told me, you will never forget the smell and taste of Kyara once you have tried it!
 

kesiro

Well-Known Member
I have very little experience about tasting oil. It is only safe to consume certain oils which are distilled under relatively sterile conditions. Ceylon 1 is one of those oils and even the tiniest of tastes left my mouth completely tingly. I was blown away with how powerful an effect that was. I am talking about the smallest imaginable amount. Crazy.
 
I have very little experience about tasting oil. It is only safe to consume certain oils which are distilled under relatively sterile conditions. Ceylon 1 is one of those oils and even the tiniest of tastes left my mouth completely tingly. I was blown away with how powerful an effect that was. I am talking about the smallest imaginable amount. Crazy.
Haha, when I asked this question I was wondering if oud tasted similar to how it smells, but I never would have guessed that it leaves your moth tingly. Amazing!
 

Kruger

Well-Known Member
Tasting synthetics or cutting agents is like licking cactus leaf. You'd be gargling trying to get rid of the bitterness and the irritation in your throat for the rest of the day. So when push comes to shove, tasting for synthetics is a quick way to tell the purity of an oil. Needless to say, I don't do that myself, nor do I recommend anyone doing it. But it works in theory. :)

Obviously, that's not what @Taha is doing in the video. I can't speak on his behalf, but the taste of oud oil actually goes some way in telling you the quality of the wood, and also the cleanliness of the distillation. If you've ever sampled different kinds of olive oil, it's immediately obvious which ones are the riper, better cultivated ones. The almost peppery bitterness, the twang it leaves on your tongue afterward, etc. Similar thing here.

We've had some people over for a tasting session. After the initial reluctance to add a drop to their tea, or if you're more daring, take a drop straight on the tongue, the experience usually ends up in a "Wow... I see!" moment. Especially when you taste the higher end oils. Purple Kinam is the go-to reference for us. Taste it and your whole head gets permeated by the very scent you smell. There's an almost menthol like coolness that sizzles through your sinuses into your forehead, and a little bit of a buzz that hits you soon after. A calming, spaced out feeling, not dissimilar to the effects of chewing on a betel nut.

But taste a regular, lower grade oil, and you wouldn't know what you're tasting if you didn't know it was oud. It just tastes 'oily'. It's quite illuminating to do these back and forth tastings between different caliber oils because you quickly see a pattern emerge, where the ones that are supposed to be higher quality do in fact tickle your taste buds a lot more.

Remember that in Chinese tradition oud oil is first and foremost a medicine. And like crushed leaves and herbal pastes, you can tell by the sharpness of the taste which ones are more resinous, more intense, and likely pack more medicinal oomph with greater concentrations of antioxidants, etc.

But more than any of this, what Taha was probably doing is approaching the oil holistically. The taste tells you something about the oil, the kind of wood, the distillation, and ultimately the quality that adds to what you pick up in the smell. Flip the story around and it's like when the Japanese Emperor would take a whiff of his tea before taking a sip. If the smell wasn't right, he wouldn't even bother drinking the tea. The scent imparts certain information that the taste doesn't, and vice versa. And it all adds to the completeness of the experience. (PS: If you haven't read it yet, here's more on why coffee never tastes as good as it smells.)

We all know of a certain someone who goes as far as injecting his steak with oud smoke.... he gets what I'm talking about! (That was actually a great illustration of this idea, since @Joyoud noticed what a difference the sinking-grade chips made compared to the lower grade stuff.)

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets on my case, I do NOT encourage ingesting oud oil. Do so at your own discretion, and in consultation with an experienced Chinese Medicine practitioner. You can't just drink any oud, especially since (as Taha knows all too well) many ouds contain all sorts of things that are not meant to enter the human body. I think Ensar mentioned this already, but even if pure oud, Chinese connoisseurs wouldn't even think of tasting oil if it was soaked (due to the fungi and bacteria that grows in the process.) We happily try our own because we know how it was made.
 
Tasting synthetics or cutting agents is like licking cactus leaf. You'd be gargling trying to get rid of the bitterness and the irritation in your throat for the rest of the day. So when push comes to shove, tasting for synthetics is a quick way to tell the purity of an oil. Needless to say, I don't do that myself, nor do I recommend anyone doing it. But it works in theory. :)

Obviously, that's not what @Taha is doing in the video. I can't speak on his behalf, but the taste of oud oil actually goes some way in telling you the quality of the wood, and also the cleanliness of the distillation. If you've ever sampled different kinds of olive oil, it's immediately obvious which ones are the riper, better cultivated ones. The almost peppery bitterness, the twang it leaves on your tongue afterward, etc. Similar thing here.

We've had some people over for a tasting session. After the initial reluctance to add a drop to their tea, or if you're more daring, take a drop straight on the tongue, the experience usually ends up in a "Wow... I see!" moment. Especially when you taste the higher end oils. Purple Kinam is the go-to reference for us. Taste it and your whole head gets permeated by the very scent you smell. There's an almost menthol like coolness that sizzles through your sinuses into your forehead, and a little bit of a buzz that hits you soon after. A calming, spaced out feeling, not dissimilar to the effects of chewing on a betel nut.

But taste a regular, lower grade oil, and you wouldn't know what you're tasting if you didn't know it was oud. It just tastes 'oily'. It's quite illuminating to do these back and forth tastings between different caliber oils because you quickly see a pattern emerge, where the ones that are supposed to be higher quality do in fact tickle your taste buds a lot more.

Remember that in Chinese tradition oud oil is first and foremost a medicine. And like crushed leaves and herbal pastes, you can tell by the sharpness of the taste which ones are more resinous, more intense, and likely pack more medicinal oomph with greater concentrations of antioxidants, etc.

But more than any of this, what Taha was probably doing is approaching the oil holistically. The taste tells you something about the oil, the kind of wood, the distillation, and ultimately the quality that adds to what you pick up in the smell. Flip the story around and it's like when the Japanese Emperor would take a whiff of his tea before taking a sip. If the smell wasn't right, he wouldn't even bother drinking the tea. The scent imparts certain information that the taste doesn't, and vice versa. And it all adds to the completeness of the experience. (PS: If you haven't read it yet, here's more on why coffee never tastes as good as it smells.)

We all know of a certain someone who goes as far as injecting his steak with oud smoke.... he gets what I'm talking about! (That was actually a great illustration of this idea, since @Joyoud noticed what a difference the sinking-grade chips made compared to the lower grade stuff.)

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets on my case, I do NOT encourage ingesting oud oil. Do so at your own discretion, and in consultation with an experienced Chinese Medicine practitioner. You can't just drink any oud, especially since (as Taha knows all too well) many ouds contain all sorts of things that are not meant to enter the human body. I think Ensar mentioned this already, but even if pure oud, Chinese connoisseurs wouldn't even think of tasting oil if it was soaked (due to the fungi and bacteria that grows in the process.) We happily try our own because we know how it was made.
That's it. Final verdict is here; otherwise, I had got the view a new thread would be there about tasting oud oils. Though I myself sometime taste oils, but to judge its smell through taste buds. But now onward, no way.
 

Nikhil S

Well-Known Member
Tasting synthetics or cutting agents is like licking cactus leaf. You'd be gargling trying to get rid of the bitterness and the irritation in your throat for the rest of the day. So when push comes to shove, tasting for synthetics is a quick way to tell the purity of an oil. Needless to say, I don't do that myself, nor do I recommend anyone doing it. But it works in theory. :)

Obviously, that's not what @Taha is doing in the video. I can't speak on his behalf, but the taste of oud oil actually goes some way in telling you the quality of the wood, and also the cleanliness of the distillation. If you've ever sampled different kinds of olive oil, it's immediately obvious which ones are the riper, better cultivated ones. The almost peppery bitterness, the twang it leaves on your tongue afterward, etc. Similar thing here.

We've had some people over for a tasting session. After the initial reluctance to add a drop to their tea, or if you're more daring, take a drop straight on the tongue, the experience usually ends up in a "Wow... I see!" moment. Especially when you taste the higher end oils. Purple Kinam is the go-to reference for us. Taste it and your whole head gets permeated by the very scent you smell. There's an almost menthol like coolness that sizzles through your sinuses into your forehead, and a little bit of a buzz that hits you soon after. A calming, spaced out feeling, not dissimilar to the effects of chewing on a betel nut.

But taste a regular, lower grade oil, and you wouldn't know what you're tasting if you didn't know it was oud. It just tastes 'oily'. It's quite illuminating to do these back and forth tastings between different caliber oils because you quickly see a pattern emerge, where the ones that are supposed to be higher quality do in fact tickle your taste buds a lot more.

Remember that in Chinese tradition oud oil is first and foremost a medicine. And like crushed leaves and herbal pastes, you can tell by the sharpness of the taste which ones are more resinous, more intense, and likely pack more medicinal oomph with greater concentrations of antioxidants, etc.

But more than any of this, what Taha was probably doing is approaching the oil holistically. The taste tells you something about the oil, the kind of wood, the distillation, and ultimately the quality that adds to what you pick up in the smell. Flip the story around and it's like when the Japanese Emperor would take a whiff of his tea before taking a sip. If the smell wasn't right, he wouldn't even bother drinking the tea. The scent imparts certain information that the taste doesn't, and vice versa. And it all adds to the completeness of the experience. (PS: If you haven't read it yet, here's more on why coffee never tastes as good as it smells.)

We all know of a certain someone who goes as far as injecting his steak with oud smoke.... he gets what I'm talking about! (That was actually a great illustration of this idea, since @Joyoud noticed what a difference the sinking-grade chips made compared to the lower grade stuff.)

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets on my case, I do NOT encourage ingesting oud oil. Do so at your own discretion, and in consultation with an experienced Chinese Medicine practitioner. You can't just drink any oud, especially since (as Taha knows all too well) many ouds contain all sorts of things that are not meant to enter the human body. I think Ensar mentioned this already, but even if pure oud, Chinese connoisseurs wouldn't even think of tasting oil if it was soaked (due to the fungi and bacteria that grows in the process.) We happily try our own because we know how it was made.
Wow. Wow. Thank you Thomas brother.