Distiller's Survial Guide: Counsels and Maxims
- Thread starter Ensar Oud
- Start date
- You can make art out of anything. Finding a 200 year-old tree on an unnamed island and then throwing it inside the pot is not art. Taking a sustainably harvested organic tree and making with it something more compelling and crave-inducing and satisfying than the oil from that 200 year-old tree – that is art.
I would do this except I would probably burn my wrists. I think it is great to have oils that smell like gently burning wood. I am no expert at oud distillation but I don't think this is as easy as it sounds. You mentioned in another post that the easiest thing is to make oil that smells like the wood it comes from. Rose essential oil does not smell like a fresh rose. Most oud oils do not smell like burning wood. I am not saying that these are the only oud oils I like but having them around is great. I also do love some maggot Hindi oud. It is great to have options.
I also do wish oud distillers would sell more raw wood. It is obvious that you guys have access to some amazing wood. It would be nice for more of this to be for sale. Not saying this to you in particular Ensar. I have been asking Taha for more wood but he won't listen.
I also do wish oud distillers would sell more raw wood. It is obvious that you guys have access to some amazing wood. It would be nice for more of this to be for sale. Not saying this to you in particular Ensar. I have been asking Taha for more wood but he won't listen.
Try an electric heater. If the smell must be on your wrists, use charcoal (on a ceramic bowl—not your wrists), and put your clothes, hands, face, above the fumes. It’s what the Prophet used to do.
100%. So long as you don’t claim all other styles are a mockery of agarwood.
The concentration of several thousand petals in a single drop would make that difficult. Dilution is key.
Bingo! Branding project complete, @Taha. Congratulations.
100%. So long as you don’t claim all other styles are a mockery of agarwood.
The concentration of several thousand petals in a single drop would make that difficult. Dilution is key.
Bingo! Branding project complete, @Taha. Congratulations.
Let me elaborate on this a little more. I agree with everything you said 110%. In fact, as you can see from this post, I've been 'preaching' the distillation of such oils for a long, looong time. If I remember correctly, @Taha had a very different philosophy back then. He believed in distilling only "green zone" oils that are easy on the wallet, from mid-range raw materials. And he was adamantly opposed to distilling high-grade wood. Back then, I used to take a lot of flak for distilling high-grade materials, and for selling the likes of Oud Sultani (sinking-grade wood) for $2,000. Today, I would buy back Oud Sultani for that price!
My message above has a different objective. Surely it doesn't escape anyone that we artisans have a clear agenda in our involvement in these circles: To promote our brands, to advertise our craft, and to 'position' our companies in unique ways so as to draw as much interest in our products as possible. As is only natural and to be expected. What I am saying is, all USPs aside, the truth is the truth, and it ought to be laid bare for everyone to read and understand for themselves, and then decide where they feel they're getting the best bang for their buck. And the truth is: The whole 'gently heated wood' sales pitch is very misleading, to say the least. (Remember, I am the original promoter of the same!) Let me explain.
Suppose you take sinking-grade wood of the sort Oud Sultani was extracted from, and you soak it for one month. Then you proceed to distill Oud Sultani from it using traditional methods. Then you take $30 wood from a recent harvest, but instead of soaking it for one month you either skip the soak or soak in the refrigerator so as to avoid any 'undesired notes'. Then you proceed to distill the same using all the latest techniques and 'best practices' resulting in an oil that is 'true to the character of the wood' (which you bought for $30). The first oil smells 'soaked' despite being distilled from sinking-grade wood. The second smells exactly like the wood it was extracted from under 'gentle heat'.—Which is the superior oil?
Can you see how the whole 'maggot Hindi' approach to branding is misleading? Is it fair to the artisan who soaked his precious wood to say he 'disrespected' his wood, just because he employed his artistic prerogative of following a traditional approach?
My message above has a different objective. Surely it doesn't escape anyone that we artisans have a clear agenda in our involvement in these circles: To promote our brands, to advertise our craft, and to 'position' our companies in unique ways so as to draw as much interest in our products as possible. As is only natural and to be expected. What I am saying is, all USPs aside, the truth is the truth, and it ought to be laid bare for everyone to read and understand for themselves, and then decide where they feel they're getting the best bang for their buck. And the truth is: The whole 'gently heated wood' sales pitch is very misleading, to say the least. (Remember, I am the original promoter of the same!) Let me explain.
Suppose you take sinking-grade wood of the sort Oud Sultani was extracted from, and you soak it for one month. Then you proceed to distill Oud Sultani from it using traditional methods. Then you take $30 wood from a recent harvest, but instead of soaking it for one month you either skip the soak or soak in the refrigerator so as to avoid any 'undesired notes'. Then you proceed to distill the same using all the latest techniques and 'best practices' resulting in an oil that is 'true to the character of the wood' (which you bought for $30). The first oil smells 'soaked' despite being distilled from sinking-grade wood. The second smells exactly like the wood it was extracted from under 'gentle heat'.—Which is the superior oil?
Can you see how the whole 'maggot Hindi' approach to branding is misleading? Is it fair to the artisan who soaked his precious wood to say he 'disrespected' his wood, just because he employed his artistic prerogative of following a traditional approach?
...and keep in mind (with your permission, Ensar, I put these words in your mouth), with high quality wood, once the dust has settled — the oil has aged and gone through self-fixing — even a crude distillation will result in an oil that smells like the raw material.
Whereas, with low grade wood, a distiller has to perform all sorts of clever acrobatics to avoid the smell of white wood auxiliary notes which, although they may smell pretty and nice, will NOT remind you of "gently heated wood". And if distilled in the same crude way as its high-grade counterpart, would in fact never smell like "gently heated wood".
Jumping back into my shoes now-
Ensar, you are too jaded and too spoiled haha. Sitting on large stocks of high incense grade and sinking grade and kinam distillations, you are in a position where its easy to say that. Whereas, the fact of the matter is... today when you yourself put in 10x the effort to try to match the wood quality used in your aged oils, you know that the effort required to avoid the white wood smell is far more today, when trying to make affordable-grade oils.
Whereas, with low grade wood, a distiller has to perform all sorts of clever acrobatics to avoid the smell of white wood auxiliary notes which, although they may smell pretty and nice, will NOT remind you of "gently heated wood". And if distilled in the same crude way as its high-grade counterpart, would in fact never smell like "gently heated wood".
Jumping back into my shoes now-
Ensar, you are too jaded and too spoiled haha.
Sitting on large stocks of high incense grade and sinking grade and kinam distillations, you are in a position where its easy to say that. Whereas, the fact of the matter is... today when you yourself put in 10x the effort to try to match the wood quality used in your aged oils, you know that the effort required to avoid the white wood smell is far more today, when trying to make affordable-grade oils.
...and keep in mind (with your permission, Ensar, I put these words in your mouth), with high quality wood, once the dust has settled — the oil has aged and gone through self-fixing — even a crude distillation will result in an oil that smells like the raw material.
Whereas, with low grade wood, a distiller has to perform all sorts of clever acrobatics to avoid the smell of white wood auxiliary notes which, although they may smell pretty and nice, will NOT remind you of "gently heated wood". And if distilled in the same crude way as its high-grade counterpart, would in fact never smell like "gently heated wood".
Jumping back into my shoes now-
Ensar, you are too jaded and too spoiled haha. Sitting on large stocks of high incense grade and sinking grade and kinam distillations, you are in a position where its easy to say that. Whereas, the fact of the matter is... today when you yourself put in 10x the effort to try to match the wood quality used in your aged oils, you know that the effort required to avoid the white wood smell is far more today, when trying to make affordable-grade oils.
Whereas, with low grade wood, a distiller has to perform all sorts of clever acrobatics to avoid the smell of white wood auxiliary notes which, although they may smell pretty and nice, will NOT remind you of "gently heated wood". And if distilled in the same crude way as its high-grade counterpart, would in fact never smell like "gently heated wood".
Jumping back into my shoes now-
Ensar, you are too jaded and too spoiled haha.
Sitting on large stocks of high incense grade and sinking grade and kinam distillations, you are in a position where its easy to say that. Whereas, the fact of the matter is... today when you yourself put in 10x the effort to try to match the wood quality used in your aged oils, you know that the effort required to avoid the white wood smell is far more today, when trying to make affordable-grade oils.
I realize, just as the 'grade' is completely arbitrary (my 'high-grade' might not be high enough for you, for example), the valuation itself may be equally prejudicial. I might be paying $200/kg in China while you find your wood for free in the jungle. In this case, your 'cost' is just the plane tickets and meals, divided by the number of kilos.
This is why to be fair to you, first and foremost, and everyone else reading this, I'm going to implement a new policy going forward: Document the grade of my oils as much as I can, with as much visual detail as is humanly possible.
I'm actually sorry I haven't been doing that all along. It's just that with this material the possibility of deception is endless. And then, of course, you have house 'secrets' you want to safeguard. That has been the biggest deterrent up to this point. Seeing what we've come to, I will have no choice but to do that from this point onward. Whoever chooses to post pictures of other than the wood they actually distilled, his affair is in the hands of Allah.
I've been fighting the urge to touch on this subject for quite some time. Problem is, we will be held accountable for that which we do not say just as much as we will be for that which we say. Since I started talking about this, some people stopped talking to me, others started calling me names, yet others offered to sell all my oils at 50% off. Something tells me I may be doing the right thing.....