The setting is Samarinda, East Borneo island. My distiller sits tired and worn out, as I type. But he is happy.
Given the current dismal state of the agarwood world and the difficulty of sourcing good quality raw materials for distillation, after many discussions, my distiller and I agreed that we will have to go the extra mile to source truly fabulous raw materials.
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So Bhavana arrived.
It certainly falls under the ‘classic Indian profile’ category, but its quite unusual too. Sure, many of the distillation techniques employed to craft this oil were more traditional compared to Aatma, but you might recall that we threw in our own modifications. Sniffing my wrist right now, its like a classic Hindi oud profile being screened through some very unexpected ‘filters’.
Bhavana is a fascinating adventure in the world of oud distillation, just as it is an olfacory adventure in the broad scent spectrum that it offers.
Right after the distillation of Aatma and Hindi Khalis was concluded, I told the distiller to craft yet another oud. The oil was to be distilled from agarwood stock virtually identical to that used for making Aatma, but with slightly different techniques. Continue reading
Between horrible, mediocre and spectacular, there are quite a few oud oils on the market from the eastern part of Borneo island, known as Kalimatan Timur or Kaltim for short. Our Borneo Symphony is an example of a very high quality oil extracted from trees from this part of the island.
But the western part of Borneo island is a region whose oud very few people are acquainted with. And there’s a very good reason why.
After running out of Cambodi Sultan, I rang up the distiller and told him I wanted another oil just like it. Over the course of the next several months, he gave me samples of new distillations, each one more disappointing than the previous.
I was convinced that Cambodian oud was history, for AgarAura.
Then things changed.
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Have you noticed that of all the ouds from all the oud-producing regions of the world, Indian oud oils smell the least similar to the smell of heated Indian agarwood chips?
There are certainly a few (very few, in fact) fine Indian oils available today that smell great and are of impressive quality, however they have an altogether different scent when you compare them to the smell of the intoxicatingly delicious wisps of smoke that rise from an Indian agarwood chip atop a lighted coal.
AgarAura already has many exciting developments underway, including new oud oils and ideas for new mukhallat blends.
But we want to ask YOU, the esteemed client, to tell us what you want.
Are you craving an oud oil from a particular country, region, or species of agarwood? Do you have an idea for a new blend, and want AgarAura to give it life?
You can reply right here and tell us what you want.
We also encourage you to visit our Facebook page, and participate in the ‘Oud Genre’ poll.
This is your chance to have a say in what AgarAura offers on the website. We value your input!
Many of our esteemed clients may have already heard the news, but those of you who haven’t: AgarAura is now officially an oud distiller. Continue reading
Taha Syed is owner of Agar Aura, which sells an affordable collection of oud oils and woods online. He’s also a frequent contributor to the oud lovers group at Basenotes.com.
Dear Friends,
For those of you observing the Holy Month of Ramadan we’d like to wish you all a peaceful and blessed month ahead. There will quite literally be ‘lots in store’ over the next few months so stay tuned by following our new and exciting blog, and keeping up-to-date with our Facebook Page.
