Given the sad current state of trials and tribulations, I had decided I will stay away until things settle down a bit. Which conveniently coincides with the fact that I'm currently swamped with other stuff like house showings, a sandalwood distillation, year-end tax stuff, and let's not forget the upcoming Borneo hunt with my brand spankin' new team of hunters. In fact, I'll be off the grid early next week it seems. Right now, I'm waiting for Adam to head over to my place, got a little time on my hands, so I thought I'd pitch in my two cents.
Here are my own thoughts on some of the issues discussed-
- yes, Ensar
IS insane. Umm, that is precisely the point. I was actually searching up and down trying to find my Dec 2015 Agar Aura bank statement just so I could scan and post up the six-figure amount for the King Koh Kong project. Didn't find it, but maybe the company accountant has a copy, so if I do get a hold of it I'll post it up here.
If King Koh Kong can be that costly (despite the huge yield due to my yield-boosting techniques), then imagine the cost of Ensar's insane Taiwanese distillations, some of which utilized
actual kinam. And let's not forget, I'm still a little fish compared to Ensar, so again triple the cost compared to my distillation projects wouldn't surprise me.
- I can imagine how hurt Ensar is. When he visited, it turned out I didn't even get to smell half of the stuff he wanted to show me (I had to rush to Borneo to deal with a mutiny, my wife was LITERALLY packing my suitcase for me while Ensar was here). I shamelessly straight up asked him how the
HECK he copes with the zakat (crash course: Zakat is the 2.5% of total wealth
including the
market value of sellable goods, that al Muslims have to give in charity every year). You know what he said? For
THIS reason, he's kept many of these oils for himself (just imagine how his personal expenses pile up). As if his current debts aren't large enough, the sheer zakat figure multiplied over years upon years of aging the oils (and the zakat has to be paid at the
market value each year) would be enough to turn a child's head grey.
Does that make sense? What I'm getting at is that he's forced to keep these oils as
personal possession (instead of business inventory), and that's why there are so many oils most of us have never heard of (and I had the privilege to smell some of them). I know I for one would be deeply hurt if I was stuck in this sort of situation, and then people turned it around and used it
against me.
- Oud distillation is not an art. Artisanal oud distillation is an art.
- I have done 9 side-by-side distillation permutations and each one smelled different (Fleurs Et Bois and another oil @ TWIS, along with 7 others). This 9-batch project gave birth to the whole Gen3 and Gen4 stuff by the way.
- There's more to distillation art/science than just dumping some wood into a pot, boiling it, and collecting the biosteam. I keep trying to get people interested in espresso-making (succeeded with Taherg!), because the closer you get to making the 'god shot', the more you realize the existence of subtleties in oud distillation.
- Knowledge is power. The more you learn, the more you realize there's someone above you in terms of knowledge.
- I've said it before and I'll say it again: usually consumers focus on things like the condenser, water, pot material, soaking, and trivial (yes,
trivial) stuff like that. As far as techniques are concerned, there's more to it. Ensar can, I'm sure, attest to the unusualness of my methodology for example, what say ye Ensar? Likewise, I'm sure Ensar has his own bag of proprietary secrets.
- More than shmancy or fancy techniques though, the
wood itself matters
THE most. Like a refined palette enjoying a cup of artisanal espresso (done right), a refined nose IS able to discern, identify, and appreciate oud quality. The majority of folks in the world are not coffee connoisseurs, so its silly (considering the prohibitive cost) to expect the number of true oud connoisseurs to be higher. Not clear what I'm saying? Coffee is cheaper and there are more coffee consumers in the world, yet very few coffee connoisseurs. Now apply that to oud, which is more expensive
and more complex.
- (Sorry Ensar) I'm sure the techniques and apparatus for oils like Sultani and Royale No.1 sucked butts. I'm sure if you and I were there witnessing the oils being born, we would have been appalled. But years of aging (i.e. self-rectification) allowed the sheer quality of the raw materials to redeem the oils and
that shines through, and
that is what everyone who smells these oils is captivated by.
My point? Its all about the wood first and foremost. 99.9999999999% of distillers just go by grade/looks (actually, not even that - they go with the cheapest wood they can get their hands on).
- YES, a good nose
CAN identify things like species, techniques, apparatus, the majority of adulteration techniques, nature and grade of raw material etc.. just by smelling. You, the reader, may not. But others can. Enough with the sour grapes already. I'm sure many of us have read
Plato's Allegory of the Cave. If you haven't, please do. Its a short read.
And now, allow me to (literally) find a way to get a roof over my family's head. I have to move out of my dream home, my current home, because there isn't enough high grade agarwood left in the world to allow me to stay afloat. Those who are managing just fine, more power to you. I wish you all the success in your endeavours. But please don't jeer and taunt others who made the stupid mistake of focusing on a small niche within the market. The pinch is painful enough, so the taunts are extra hurtful.
Here's my new team.. I still have to go and interview them, and train them how to find and harvest Agar Aura grade trees. I'm sure you all will be understanding if I am absent for a little while.
(PS: one of the guy's name is Fendi.. how cool is that?!)
