Oud Oil 101

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#1
Just like their fruit-bearing counterparts, agarwood trees produce radically different types of resin. To the same degree that apples can be said to resemble cherries, Indian oud oil resembles Cambodian, and Bornean resembles Papuan. They are all 'agarwood oils' to the same extent that papayas, dragon fruit, lychee, kiwi and oranges are all fruits; but that is where all similarity ends. All further comparisons, whether in chemical make-up, olfactory profile, method of inoculation, peak maturation, fermentability, and optimal extraction techniques hold as much water as similar comparisons would between different fruit-bearing trees. The best way to harvest watermelons bears no relevance for mangosteen, and the optimal extraction method for orange juice is of little relevance to mulberries.

While obvious to the agarwood farmer, this may be something that escapes the layman, hence I thought I would point it out here for everyone who reads this to reflect a moment, and perchance learn something new about oud oil.
 
#2
Granted no 2 trees are alike but would a Aquilaria malaccensis grown in Thailand be so different as you described above from same but grown in Cambodia?
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#3
Habibi Hisham, what I mean by 'trees' is different types of oud tree, i.e. different species. Aquilaria crassna is as different from aquilaria malaccensis as snakefruit is to durian, although both are fruits. Whereas a crassna tree grown in Cambodia is as similar to one grown in Thailand as a lychee tree grown in Cambodia would be to one grown in Thailand; i.e. very similar!
 
#4
Thank you for this thread, Ensar!
Would the Oudorable Sampler set be a good place to start, or would you recommend buying a larger quantity of a single oil?
To get to really know one oil, then trying others.

Would be really fun if you made more threads with information like this.
Hope you are having a good day.
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#5
You're most welcome! : )

To carry on with the simile, imagine you're new to SE Asian fruits. You've never had rambutan, dragon fruit, lychee, snake fruit, longan, jackfruit or mangosteen. It might be wiser to go with a fruit platter and explore the different tastes rather than pick up a whole durian! (It's illegal to travel with, and most hotels won't admit you if you're carrying one!)

On another note, I have yet to see someone find fault with Oud Yusuf or Kalbar 3000. These are the most beginner-friendly oils, and you can be sure you'll own a bottle of something you'll find pleasure in each time you untwist that cap. Given your reaction to Yusuf or Kalbar 3000, we can then make further recommendations, if you'd rather avoid the cost of the Sampler and own a full bottle instead.

Have a good one!
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#6
The greatest challenge...

This is the greatest challenge facing someone buying oud oil: discriminating between the different vendors and the oils they offer.

The first thing to know is that there are VAST gaps of difference in quality between the oils on offer from different producers. Yes, even the ones reputed to sell 'pure, top shelf' oud oils. There are shelves... and there are shelves.

To me, to label an oil 'top shelf' on the basis of its being pure is tantamount to calling a Kia a high quality car because it runs on four wheels, and comparing it to the Porsches and Bentleys. Unfortunately, with oud it is not as clear what the precise differences are between the wares of different 'houses'. All you have in front of you is an image of a bottle with some writing on the side. The vendor sounds 'friendly'. A 'fine young man'. But his oil is fast asleep, more often than not, even if it were 'pure'. When compared to the Rolls, the Kia remains, at best, a Kia.

At Ensar Oud, we specialize in creating custom distilled oud oils – with NO intention of selling them later. And if we could make them even more expensive, and even higher quality, we would. The truth of the matter is that none of our oud oils are 'for sale' in the banal sense of the term. Our oils are not 'manufactured' in order to get 'sold' the way other vendors' oils are. We are happy to keep them, and not sell a single bottle of oud, knowing that oud oil of this calibre is irreplaceable at this point in time; and no doubt, it will skyrocket in value once wild agarwood is officially declared extinct.

There are vendors advertising oils they haven't even distilled yet. Yet others display graphs and calculations of how to produce the most economical oud possible, and keep producing, and selling, and producing, and selling... We have oils in our collection from 2001 which no one's even heard about. And the oils that are getting distilled by us now, well... maybe you'll be able to purchase them from my offspring one day.

So first and foremost, what you need to decide on is whether you're on a budget. You can't walk into the Rolls showroom and start complaining: 'How come they're so expensive!' Well, they're tailor-made to a certain standard, with NO compromises. It's like asking for a bespoke handmade automobile, and then complaining because it's not the same price as a Hyundai.

At Ensar Oud, the oils are made by me, to my personal taste and standard, for my own private collection, with no compromise on cost, quality, and what I call 'ecstasy factor'. Apart from agarwood oil, each bottle contains my sweat, my blood, and my tears. And this is something people say they can literally feel when they wear my oils.

I find no greater joy than when I share my distillations with my friends. Giving a bottle of Oud Shuayb to someone is an act of entrustment, not one of 'sale'. I am entrusting you with my oil and my toil, hoping that you will be thankful for it, and appreciate the time and effort that I put into making it. My thanks and gratitude go out to you in turn, and I pray that Allah Most High enrich you and send you every blessing.
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#7
'Barnyard'

One point of interest which I'd like to share with you is the fact of agarwood's fermentability. Meaning that agarwood, just like certain other things (vegetables, for example) can be fermented. In Malaysia, they ferment even fruits.

Whether you like your cabbage raw or prefer sauerkraut is a question that goes back to personal taste. But all fermented vegetables share a certain note – a certain taste note – which is that tart, squinch-your-face-up like-you-just-bit-into-a-lemon sort of taste; which is identical whether you eat fermented cabbage or spinach, or cucumbers.

There's a new trend in agarwood use in the West, and it's to skip or minimize the fermentation stage. The fermented note is the one that's termed 'barnyard' or 'fecal' or, to get scientific, 'indoly' (as in the indol that's found in other aromatics such as jasmine).

This note has led some to compare the likes of Oud Mostafa to Assam Organic. But that's like comparing sauerkraut to pickles, the two being completely different vegetables. The only note they share is the fermentation note. It is misleading, to say the least, to compare Oud Mostafa to Assam Organic. Oud Mostafa is decades-old incense-grade Burmese-Assamese border raw materials. Assam Organic is Upper Assam, 30 year-old, organically cultivated trees. Aside from both being oud oil, there's little correlation between them – different locale, different trees, different age, different grades, different extraction methods even. The only thing they share is... the fermentation preceeding the cooking.

Agarwood distillation is a craft that dates back centuries. To us, the traditional facets of this art are sacrosanct. We are not keen on modernizing agarwood distillation. To tamper with it would be like tampering with traditional attar distillation. For which reason, whenever possible we avoid steam distillation entirely.

Even though it would save us a lot of time and toil, to tone down oud by skipping the fermentation – to take the oomph out of oud – is to... not produce oud. Oud is characterized and identified by that selfsame note – that pungent, strong, powerful, sometimes overwhelming, and to new comers... even repulsive fermented woods note. It's precisely this note which is given off by fermented oud, specifically of Indian origin, which is what oud has meant to the Muslims for ages. To Muslims, oud was never Bornean, or Papuan, cool or leafy, or 'fruity'. Instead, they sought out precisely that mighty fermented wood note.

Interestingly enough, when perfumers in the West want to create an oud fragrance, they don't imitate the scent of floral Papuan oils, or the scent of fruity Malinaus, or the scent of airy, sweet Kalbars. What they imitate is the fermentation note which is found in traditionally distilled Indian and South East Asian ouds – such as Laotian, Cambodian, Burmese, Chinese and Thai. In short, the likes of Oud Mostafa.

This is why, if you take the very finest raw materials from this region and process them the classic way of full-on fermentation, and then cook them the way they've been cooked for millennia, you get an oud that's voted almost unanimously by oud lovers as their all-time favorite. How come nobody voted for Borneo Kinam or Green Papua, both very unusual ouds? Because oud is fermented. And it is the fermentation note which often misleads amateurs into comparing the likes of Oud Mostafa to Assam Organic. This tells you how oud is identified and perceived in the mind, and which note is the one that predominates in its classification, be it Chinese or Cambodian or Burmese. It's perceived as something fermented.
 
#8
. It's precisely this note which is given off by fermented oud, specifically of Indian origin, which is what oud has meant to the Muslims for ages. To Muslims, oud was never Bornean, or Papuan, cool or leafy, or 'fruity'. Instead, they sought out precisely that mighty fermented wood note.
Nice take there on Oud! I myself am all for that fermented note. Indians being my favorites...Notwithstanding, it would be apt to point out that Oud oil itself is most likely an 'innovation'..(not using this term with its legalistic connotation). To Muslims of yore, Oud would have been solely the wood and it's smell that of the smoke given off when burnt.
 

Connor

New Member
#9
Thank you for the very detailed posts Ensar. I am just starting to explore and appreciate the complexity involved with anything oud related. Although I only have some Japanese Aloeswood incense sticks, and a bottle of your Encens d'Angkor at the moment, I hope to acquire some chips soon! I just need to take my time, and realize I will have to slowly grow into this. Being in my final year of High School, I find money to be very tight. For now at least.

Out of the chips you carry, what would you say is the most beginner friendly in terms of scent profile? I realize this question may be nonsensical, but Judging by the fact that I seem to like the notes in Encens d'Angkor, maybe I don't have to limit myself to sweeter, more western friendly scents as much. I would definitely like to explore Assam Organic too!
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#10
You're most welcome, Connor. And don't let it get you down, not having the finances right now. Everything will come just at the right time! It always does. : )

The most beginner friendly chips I'd say are the Supreme Chanthaburi. I very much enjoy the Khao Yai and Brunei chips too, however the scent profile of the Chan chips is just so spicy and classically "oud" you really can't go wrong with them. Oud chips have something of a psychoactive effect, at least on me, and these are the ones that will space you out the least. The Khao Yai chips are number one in "space factor," followed closely by the Brunei.
 
#11
All this information is great Ensar, and really welcomed!
I'm gonna order a bottle of Oud Yusuf on Tuesday if that is OK.
Do you know of any trouble with the customs in Norway?
It will be my first time an oud oil ever.
Really exciting!
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#12
You're most welcome, Kakao. : )
And we welcome your order of Oud Yusuf. We haven't experienced any issues shipping to Norway so far, so hopefully the customs clearance shouldn't be a problem. Since it is your first oud purchase ever, we'll be sure to include some samples of other oils, like Assam Organic and Crassna Cha, just to give you a better idea of the broad spectrum of oud fragrances.
 
F

floraopia

Guest
#17
Actually, I have almost every Ensar Oud Oud released (does that make sense?!) so I am not sure what I would do with samples
 
#20
Well, talk about samples and give away's, When I was first starting on my Oud journey, I had decided to purchase from all kind of Oud sources including E-bay and cheap vendors to see how bad and how low you can go? In the spirit of Education to newbies and new starters, if you live in the United States, I am willing to send free samples of some Oud Borneo Oils that i got for around $50/ 1/4 tola and that should serve as your guide line for the low bar in oud oils. Of course I do not make any claim about their purity or what's in them but they are all sold as "Pure" Oud oil. If interested PM me. I am doing this to return the favor of some generous members who have helped me when I was starting and not only they guided me to what is good but what also to avoid. I only Wish I have their generosity of sending others good quality Oud, but maybe soon :)