Oud Biz: The Dark Side

Speaking of Oud Learner's box of chocolates, they're not exposed to much oxygen, and guess what, I have decided to declare war on oxygen likewise.
Yep, I ordered some 8x30mm Autosampler Vials which have a capacity of .75ml (more like .85 to .95 when filled to the max), these will have plug style caps instead of twist-on. I will undergo this tedious task, but it will be worth it in the long run. I was also thinking of how to make partitions in the Ensar Oud silk boxes to use as holders. Imagine if I could fashion the partitions while using the red velvet material as the overlay, that would be real neat
Thanks for the inspiration General Oud Learner of the Oud OCD (oxygen control division)

Ahhhhh OCD = oxygen control division! LOL that fits Mr Oud Learner just perfectly!! Bravo!

Haha somehow I have a feeling of being branded an 'oxygen control freak'! [emoji16]

That's because you are

Thanks bhanny and the Gaharu forum admin for letting us register on Gaharu.

Ah.....I had noticed a sudden influx of new members....

Of course. Listen, all I have ever wanted was to learn and talk about oud. Anyone and everyone is welcome. We all just need to be respectful to one another, we don't all have to like each other and think the same, let's just play fair in the sandbox.

I have no doubt, with the various people and personalities on here that there will be heated debates, intense disagreements and large differences in opinions and ideals in general. That is all cool. It is going to be an interesting time I think.

But through all that, imagine what we gain to learn, to witness, the collective experience and knowledge is awesome.

So yeah. Welcome!

Ouff, at long last, the crux of what we discussed during our latest get-together (hope Kruger manages to get the video ready soon, after the Ceylon oil is done of course).
Its the biggest complaint I've voiced this past year or so, namely: the lack of focus/precision at appreciating the actual oud oleoresin. Call it the Z-axis ding, or "'that' indescribable quality" that certain oils possess while others don't, or whatever else.
Basically, its when the wood's doing the talking. Or rather, the oleoresin.

I noticed you've been dropping hints about that upcoming Indian (Chinese? Indese? Chindian?) oil, well, you already know what I think. I think you SHOULD release it. That oil (and only one other Indian, Lavanya, but I don't know if I'll ever release that) prove the point SO well that I think you need to do some sorta "contrast" release. Now that's what I'd call real ouducation.

Let everyone smell quality oleoresin,
...and then also let them try another oil featuring the other elements that some folks appreciate, but perhaps not knowing its not the oud they're appreciating but rather accessory/auxiliary foreign elements/notes... the smell of the soak, the smell of the temperature control, the smell of the pot, and the smell of the condenser. The last two are gonna be interesting, a bit tougher - let's see how easy that ouducation will be. But I think this would be the most beneficial ouducation the market can get right now.

I'll try to think of how I can contribute to this ouducation as well. I know a few distillers with 'okay enough' oils that they've been trying to get me to buy, like $20-$50/bottle oils. Maybe I should get those and pass those along as learning aids. I'd just need to make sure my passing along those oils doesn't tarnish the AA name, now that would be the biggest challenge.

So yes, I for one think your take-home DIY ouducation kit is a brilliant idea.

Sounds like a plan. Is that $20-$50 a bottle distiller price or retail?

I'm tempted to say... one and the same. Distiller price, passed on at that same (retail) price too. What better way to (re)draw the line that divides the mundane from the exceptional?
Or maybe I could still add a profit; the price would still be extremely affordable. Just the other day, I finally sat down and for the first time calculated the number of batches of my oils (whose wood I paid for) that 'disappeared' in 2016, and I never got them. I had mistakenly guesstimated 30 tolas, turns out its closer to about 60-70 tolas. So maybe passing those oils on at zero profit might be a bit tough considering the circumstances, but even with profit added, this ouducation won't break the bank, I can promise you that.
Its just that considering my current situation, a purely charitable ouducation might not be possible for me right now. At least not while my days and nights are one, as I'm doing what my workers used to do to. Well, at least I know my oils won't be 'disappearing' anymore!

By the way, one thing I want to make crystal clear: I have NO agenda to attempt to change anyone's tastes/preferences. Even I myself, for example, do enjoy a nicely-done barn on occasion.
Likewise, as Ensar (to his horror upon discovery!) can attest to, even though I eat SUPER clean all week, I have one super duper duper nasty cheat meal per week, just for a change.
(of course, I got a mighty rebuking from Ensar)

So, rather than try to influence customers' perception, ideally what I have in mind is to give folks words to grasp and describe what they smell, better, more accurately.
How many times have we caught ourselves saying something like, "I can't really put it into words, but wow oil xyz is just..." or perhaps the best description we could come up with was "this oil just blows my mind".
Words help us describe to others. But words also help us ourselves grasp things in our minds better too, as any linguist will tell us.

I think appreciation of the pure oleoresin aroma is a step in the right direction. Contrasting that with an oil that's bursting with accessory/auxiliary notes will make it even clearer.
Everyone can still enjoy their fav oils, but at least they'll know what it is about a 3 or 4-figure (and perhaps soon, 2-figure?) oil that they enjoy - the oleoresin.. or the soaking pot.

I love the idea taha. Sign me up. I'd love to do a side by side comparison of $25 oud and $x oud with added "ding"

Thanks for the reply... the reason I asked the price was to get an idea of how much these cheap oils sell for from distillers. Not to ascertain your possible mark-up! I doubt you would want to make any mark-up from oils like that! Yuk.

Is this 3g bottles we are talking about?

2.5g actually. I've searched up and down, and cannot seem to find bottles from any source that consistently hold 3g. How weird huh?
And yes, I wouldn't want to make any mark-up from oils like that (yuk is right!) (in fact I wouldn't want to tarnish my reputation by selling them at all) but like I said, considering my current circumstances (NO thanks to quite well-paid yet spineless former distillers), a free ouducation kit might be tough for me to offer. At least for now.

Ah, no added ding. That should be the whole point of the $x oud. Nothing added. All ding. All oud.
The $25 ouds have the added stuff (soak smell, pot smell, condenser smell, fire control smell).

I am down with that idea Taha! Although, those cheap bottles are probably a waste on me. Have already been through that on my journey and don't need to really look back.

I've seen you mention that there are three of these "Chindi" maybe Sinensis oils that you've smelled, how do they differ from other Hindi oils, or Bhutanese, Burmese or Chinese for that matter? Is there anything close to them in profile that's in the market? Also, Lavanya, is it in the same vein of say Lalitya or Shano Shokat? Or is it an Indese oil as well?

I just reread your post just to make sure I saw it right. WTH?!?!?!?! So you payed for distillations and never got your oils? How in the world does that happen?? And that is not a rhetorical question. What happened to them??

In reality there are/were 5 or 6 such oils. The first was Lalitya, that was the prototype of the super rare and super small Chindi family. For Gen3, I always have to establish a 'baseline' first, a prototype. That was Lalitya. There was one other which I had intended to release, hence mentioned it publicly, but then never did end up releasing it (wholesaled it off to pay for hunting costs). The other batches were duds and all written off as wholesale batches from the get go.
Nope, Lavanya is pure Mokokchung Agallocha to the pinky bone. Its the Mokokchung sister of Ensar's Chindi, both being the purest expression of the oleoresin of their respective regions in India. Ensar's, however, is Sinesis unlike the Agallocha oil Lavanya, hence I think his would serve the purpose of presenting the isolated oleoresin smell much better (what sings louder and clearer than Sinesisl?) for ouducational purposes.

Yep, its exactly how it sounds. How in the world did it happen, well, there were 4-6 different cases and each case was different. In one case, I got part of the batch and then discovered someone else got the rest. In certain cases I paid for the wood, the distiller said he'd "get to it" back in late 2015 or early 2016 then I discovered someone else already got it (unknowingly, hence not at fault. The distiller basically got paid twice... two Christmases for him, hey why not, right?!). Some were working off their debts to me (I set up the distillery for them), which they promised to pay off in the form of reduced profit-per-tola for them until the debt got paid of. Never did.
You get the idea.

By the way, one guy I must clear of any misjudgement is Ahmad (pictured a couple pages back). He never wronged me. True, he's now incapable of working for me, but that's due to no fault of his own. His older brother (Yusof, my former chief hunter), sick and tired of the dismal wild agarwood situation here in Malaysia, withdrew from the wood gig and is now focusing on distillation. He is now the biggest supplier of cendana-laced gaharu racun in all of Malaysia. Although I had paid for 5 AA-customized distillation setups there, now only Yusof's pots are running (every single installed pot, and all pumping out cendana-laced racun) - after all the distillery is on Yusof's land.
Ironically, 5 pots is exactly the number I need per my calculations, and 5 pots are collecting dust at the facility, however I don't have room for any more pots to run distillations at home. Through his sobs and whimpers, Ahmad promised he'd find a way to get those 5 pots up and running one way or another. There's hope yet..
Just today a few hours ago, he swung by my place to grab some batches of wood to grind for me, after returning back from Java (he now works for the largest Sina'i producer in the world.. yep, the same guy I was talking about a couple pages back). I still gotta do the distilling myself, but him helping me with grinding sure helps! That saves me 7 hours of back-breaking manual labour per batch, which I've been finding rather tough to do with this new one-man-gig (finding, grinding, and distilling wood by myself).

That is very unfortunate to hear Taha. It is a depressing shame that such a divine substance is associated with such treachery. It's easy to get disgruntled but I applaud you for sticking with it, even if it means you are a one man band, lol.

Thanks Kesiro!
Well, we all know there have been bands that disbanded, and then one of them would release solos which outdid anything the band had put out. I'm hoping for something like that.