We went into this, heart and soul. Pots boiled up blood, tears and sweat for the last five years. Grey hairs have grown plenty and we’ve gotten to know many beautiful people and distilled some exquisite oils. And so, it’s with a heavy heart that I look through the peephole to see a dark, dismal […]
Below: Bangle carved from 20 Year-old wild cambodian agarwood Yes, that’s kayra powder you see here. Served warm. DISCLAIMER: If you know just how ridiculously precious kyara really is, the following video contains explicit content!
Take a new distill. Collect the final drops, uncap the container, and leave the oud exposed for three months, ten months, two years, and you’ll get – in a distorted echo – a whiff of Tigerwood 1995… for two minutes. For a massive number of oud users, those two minutes of imitation-age matter more than any notes […]
What is it about Maroke ouds? They’ve got this medicinal scent that captures a somber green aroma you can’t find in any other kind of oud. They often smell like fresh wet earth, a dense forest in the rain. For some, they’re the pinnacle of the oud scent. Some love them for their extreme oudiness. […]
Why does one bottle of oud cost $300 more than the next, or even $700 more? You’ll hear it’s all about the raw materials, but what exactly does that mean? And is that all there is to it? In the coming weeks, I’d like to share a series of insights that give you a peek at what […]
It has been brought up time and again that using the term ‘Kyara’ in naming oud oils is misleading and inappropriate. So I think the time has come for some clarifications to be made, and some questions to be asked. Firstly, no one knows what kyara is. Let me repeat that: No one knows what constitutes kyara. No one can explain […]
Indigenous cultures and modern minds alike swear to the sacred nature of the mysterious agarwood tree. Oud wood and oil have a place in the homes of laymen and business tycoons alike, whether as carved agarwood beads, aloeswood miniatures of religious symbols, or bottles of fragrant oud oil. We might have dismissed it as mere […]
1 | Kruger, our distiller monk and a member of the local mafia take their seats at a small restaurant just before sunset. They order Tom Yum and steamed fish. When the waiter brings their drinks, Kruger turns to the mafia member. The monk had once told him about his father’s escapades when he was […]
Here’s yet another Kyara theory some of you might find interesting. I met a bright and resourceful scientist in Borneo who was fascinated with the resination process of agarwood, particularly that of Kyara. Based in Malaysian Borneo, where you find numerous centennial aquilarias with zero infection, he hypothesized that the reason so many of the…
1 | There are several leads I want to follow up with in Sri Lanka. Not the least of which is to visit the new distillery an old friend of mine is setting up there. There’s a lot of agarwood talk going on in, around, and about the island, so it’s not difficult to see why […]