what regional/varietal or style of oil you are hoping for in 2018?

Philip

Well-Known Member
#21
@ Everyone - forgive the French. I am better able to express myself in my native language in this specific instance.
@Ensar : Des huiles qui interpellent. Des huiles qui saisissent l'âme et se font manifestement remarquer. Des huiles qui font vagabonder l'esprit tout en impliquant les 5 sens de la personne. Toute région confondue : des huiles chinoises, Hindi - enfin bref - peu importe. A savoir, je fais référence à des huiles comme China Sayang, Assam Organic et Chugoku (d'après ce que j'ai lu) qui forcément déclenchent un engagement auprès de la personne.
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#22
@Ensar: Des huiles qui interpellent. Des huiles qui saisissent l'âme et se font manifestement remarquer. Des huiles qui font vagabonder l'esprit tout en impliquant les 5 sens de la personne. Toute région confondue : des huiles chinoises, Hindi - enfin bref - peu importe. A savoir, je fais référence à des huiles comme China Sayang, Assam Organic et Chugoku (d'après ce que j'ai lu) qui forcément déclenchent un engagement auprès de la personne.
My sentiments exactly! ;)
 

JohnH

Moderator
Staff member
#23
@ Everyone - forgive the French. I am better able to express myself in my native language in this specific instance.
@Ensar : Des huiles qui interpellent. Des huiles qui saisissent l'âme et se font manifestement remarquer. Des huiles qui font vagabonder l'esprit tout en impliquant les 5 sens de la personne. Toute région confondue : des huiles chinoises, Hindi - enfin bref - peu importe. A savoir, je fais référence à des huiles comme China Sayang, Assam Organic et Chugoku (d'après ce que j'ai lu) qui forcément déclenchent un engagement auprès de la personne.
As I just googled a translation I thought I would post it here for others, nice post @Philip :

@ Everyone - forgive the French. I am better able to express myself in my native language in this specific instance.
@Ensar: Oils that challenge. Oils that capture the soul and are obviously noticeable. Oils that wander the mind while involving the 5 senses of the person. Any region combined: Chinese oils, Hindi - anyway - no matter. Namely, I am referring to oils like China Sayang, Assam Organic and Chugoku (from what I read) that necessarily trigger a commitment to the person.
 

PEARL

Well-Known Member
#24
While I agree with you wholeheartedly that Assam Kinam, Yunus, Nuh, Idrees, Isa, Sulaiman, Mostafa are formidable feats—Ouds Musa, Hud, Shuayb &c hold their own.
Indeed, the blue-black Sultan of Hindi's Oud Hud, it's Karbi Anglong sister distill Aku Akira, Royal Bhutan, Bhutan No. 1, Royal Imphal, Oud Ayoub, Oud Zachariyya, etc. are all peerless Hindi oils in their genre, I just didn't want to break the internet listing them all;).
 

Taha

Well-Known Member
#25
My, slightly fanboy-ish, hopes for 2018 is any oud from any region or style from Taha.

Well I have some good-ish news. :D
I found a prepaid credit card that I can get, and then link to Paypal. So for at least 1-2 weeks I can reactivate the web store. Wohoo!
(Here in Malaysia, its not like Canada, where I could walk into any gas station and get a prepaid credit card, no questions asked. Here, I literally found only 2 "no questions asked" cards, and even then there had to be an interview!)

[...]
Maluku
[...]
@kesiro, I succeeded in twisting m.arif's arm and convincing him to come help me grind the Maluku wood. He'll be here any second now!
My previous two Maluku oils were made by a Malukuan, and the wood for this batch is from the very same guy. But this time I plan to cook the wood myself. :D
 

kesiro

Well-Known Member
#26
@kesiro, I succeeded in twisting m.arif's arm and convincing him to come help me grind the Maluku wood. He'll be here any second now!
My previous two Maluku oils were made by a Malukuan, and the wood for this batch is from the very same guy. But this time I plan to cook the wood myself. :D[/QUOTE]
Boing! :D
 

Taha

Well-Known Member
#27
In preparation for Arif's arrival, I burnt a Maluku incense stick from a Taiwanese incense house.
We quickly discussed how we'll go about the day, rolled up our sleeves, and got right to it.

@m.arif, many thanks for your help! Others may think, "hmm, that machine looks tiny", but you know looks can be deceptive – and in this case, are. ;)
arif.jpg
I did end up helping him carry the machine back, but also ended up rupturing some sutured wounds.. argh.
The good news is, I think I managed to blow most of the black snot out though. :D
(black snot and burning sinuses are an unavoidable part of the wood grinding process)

The wood was awesome quality, but from the 2.5kg of wood, I don't expect more than 2 bottles, maybe 3 tops. In my experience, the yield of Maluku wood is even lower than Filipino wood. Arif, why don't you tell them just how hard and resinous this wood was, and how difficult it was to grind, haha!

I did set aside a few chips for myself though. I had been searching for Maluku wood to distill for a very long time, and so was sitting on this batch for 2 years (exactly 2 years, since Jan 2016). Like Malinau, I was not successful in getting any more. So, like I did with the Malinau batch, I'm gonna keep these lovely pieces from the raw material as mementos.
maluku.jpg
maluku1.jpg
 
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Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
#29
In preparation for Arif's arrival, I burnt a Maluku incense stick from a Taiwanese incense house.
We quickly discussed how we'll go about the day, rolled up our sleeves, and got right to it.

@m.arif, many thanks for your help! Others may think, "hmm, that machine looks tiny", but you know looks can be deceptive – and in this case, are. ;)
View attachment 817
I did end up helping him carry the machine back, but also ended up rupturing some sutured wounds.. argh.
The good news is, I think I managed to blow most of the black snot out though. :D
(black snot and burning sinuses are an unavoidable part of the wood grinding process)

The wood was awesome quality, but from the 2.5kg of wood, I don't expect more than 2 bottles, maybe 3 tops. In my experience, the yield of Maluku wood is even lower than Filipino wood. Arif, why don't you tell them just how hard and resinous this wood was, and how difficult it was to grind, haha!

I did set aside a few chips for myself though. I had been searching for Maluku wood to distill for a very long time, and so was sitting on this batch for 2 years (exactly 2 years, since Jan 2016). Like Malinau, I was not successful in getting any more. So, like I did with the Malinau batch, I'm gonna keep these lovely pieces from the raw material as mementos.
View attachment 818
View attachment 819
What is the profile of maluku? Which other regions/species it compares to and differs from? And the oil?
 

Taha

Well-Known Member
#30
What is the profile of maluku? Which other regions/species it compares to and differs from? And the oil?
Specie-wise, its the same as Filipino: Aquilaria Cumingiana. But the sub-specie is entirely different. You can tell from the dull and pale color of the wood versus Filipino Cumingiana which is typically extremely dark, it practically looks like a different genus altogether.
And yet this wood was packed with resin. The machine kept stopping because the wood was so hard. We'd have to keep opening the mill compartment to clear it out, and we would find half-torn chunks with glistening resin across the cross section of the tears (imagine the appearance of glutinous kyara minus the 'wet' shine).
And yet... its a very dull wood.
Check out the photos Ensar posted of his Maluku '96. See how pale it looks? Its actually extremely high grade Maluku wood, I can tell just by looking at those pieces, you'd need pliers to break those in half.

Like Filipino Cumingiana, Maluku Cumingiana is low-oil-high-resin wood (making it very suitable for high heat burning = liquifying all that resin). The challenge with such types of wood, as much as I love them for heating, is the distillation yield!
The hardness, by the way, is from all that resin. Bunk (un-resinated) Maluku wood is soft.

The scent of Maluku wood is a cross between Malinau/Brunei (milky vanilla), New Guinea (bitter resin), and Burmese/Chinese (bitter rooty). Closest direct single relative would be Celebes/Sulawesi, but I doubt most folks woulda smelled Sulawesi wood (by the way, the photo of me squatting under "About Us", is with Sulawesi Bugis and a Maluku guy. I was inspecting Maluku and Sulawesi wood in Sulawesi).
Why I personally love Maluku is because of the dramatic contrast between the bitter and the sweeter notes, both are cranked way up.

As for the oil, well that depends on the chef. :)
 

m.arif

Active Member
#31
Many rock hard pieces, the maluku wood. Some sounded exactly like rocks when tossed to the floor. I was hoping that Taha would set more aside, but only those in the picture plus fragments Taha broke off from other pieces were saved.

If not for the solid wood pieces, one extension chord wouldn't have been fried, we would've saved some time, and I would've ate some Agar Aura's home made chicken asam pedas with his signature standing rice. *sigh*

Smashing beautiful pieces with an axe, well, not my wood, although it made me feel bad inside.

I really think that you can make better and quicker cash selling the wood as is though @Taha. For $10/g (dirt cheap price for the wood), $25000 right there. I hope you're not screwing yourself with this move.

Still, looking forward to the oil. The maluku incense stick was awesome ;)
 

kooolaid79

Well-Known Member
#32
Many rock hard pieces, the maluku wood. Some sounded exactly like rocks when tossed to the floor. I was hoping that Taha would set more aside, but only those in the picture plus fragments Taha broke off from other pieces were saved.

If not for the solid wood pieces, one extension chord wouldn't have been fried, we would've saved some time, and I would've ate some Agar Aura's home made chicken asam pedas with his signature standing rice. *sigh*

Smashing beautiful pieces with an axe, well, not my wood, although it made me feel bad inside.

I really think that you can make better and quicker cash selling the wood as is though @Taha. For $10/g (dirt cheap price for the wood), $25000 right there. I hope you're not screwing yourself with this move.

Still, looking forward to the oil. The maluku incense stick was awesome ;)
But now the wood is gone and made to dust right before soaking? Can we buy the dust? :D:D:p
 

Philip

Well-Known Member
#34
Thank you @Taha for all the information about Maluku/Cumingiana. I really wish you and @Ensar could hold a joint lecture series for us. I would totally even TAKE NOTES.
Speaking of Maluku, there's a bottle of AA Pulau Maluku that just got listed on eBay. I would love to grab it, but I have to wait a few more weeks for my my tax refund + work bonus :p
 

Nikhil S

Well-Known Member
#35
Well going through the posts and experience with heating Wallapatta chips I could relate. The Walla chips require more heat to burn and then they continue to sizzle nicely on low heat. Does that mean the Walla has more resin and less oil folks ? I have acquired about 30g of some sinking Filipino too ? Same story ? I liked it's unique aroma (non-smoking ones) on Ceramic when put on high heat for a prolonged period.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
#36
Well going through the posts and experience with heating Wallapatta chips I could relate. The Walla chips require more heat to burn and then they continue to sizzle nicely on low heat. Does that mean the Walla has more resin and less oil folks ? I have acquired about 30g of some sinking Filipino too ? Same story ? I liked it's unique aroma (non-smoking ones) on Ceramic when put on high heat for a prolonged period.
Amazing. Where can I source some Filipino wood @Nikhil S ? Any leads would be appreciated
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
#39
Well going through the posts and experience with heating Wallapatta chips I could relate. The Walla chips require more heat to burn and then they continue to sizzle nicely on low heat. Does that mean the Walla has more resin and less oil folks ? I have acquired about 30g of some sinking Filipino too ? Same story ? I liked it's unique aroma (non-smoking ones) on Ceramic when put on high heat for a prolonged period.
Very accurate and matching my own experience. Except in high heat that wood varnish and a funny salted fish note tends to emerge which is rather offputting.
 

Nikhil S

Well-Known Member
#40
Very accurate and matching my own experience. Except in high heat that wood varnish and a funny salted fish note tends to emerge which is rather offputting.
Cheers Brother. Sent you the Gentleman's WhatsApp. His sinking pieces have resin across the cut section. He will send u a video. I initially ordered 10 when I saw the video I went Woah. Exactly like precious Brunei chips I own. I would never miss a chance ever. Even my Sri Lanka is from him. He serves Private clientele only not a bulk dealer. All the best.