Oud Info
Oud: A Detailed Guide
Dec
Introduction to Oud
We often get asked many questions about oud such as “What is oud?”, “What are the types of ouds?”, “How can I tell good quality oud from cheap (or even synthetic) oud?” and “Why are some ouds far more expensive than others?” Here is our guide to oud to help you better understand this art.
Given the subjectivity of scent and its nomenclature, below I lay out the facts of what exactly is oud (both as an essential oil or as chips for incense) and explain the differences between designer oud perfumes, natural oud, and artisanal oud oil.
Oud as a note can be found for as little as $1 a gram yet artisanal oud can cost as much as $3,500!
That’s a huge discrepancy, so what is the difference, and is it worth it?
In a nutshell, designer fragrances labeled oud mostly use synthetic aroma chemicals produced by flavor and fragrance manufacturers like Firmenich and Givaudan. As for those that claim to use ‘real oud’ that has come to be known as pure and natural oud in the market which is produced in plantations, but neither come close to the satisfying depth and complexity experienced within fine artisanal oud which can exhibit up to 150 different aromatic compounds within a single oil. But there is more to it than just that…
Keep reading to learn the details…
History, Name & Pronounciation of “Oud”
This exotic and mysterious aromatic substance has a legendary history and has been renowned in regions of the Middle and Far East for centuries, yet the developed Western nations and modern perfumery have only relatively recently come to know of the valuable aromatic, unfortunately, in the waning of its existence.
Agarwood oil is known by many names, with perhaps the most common being Oud; o-u-d. Spelling variations of the same word exist and some of the most common are A-o-u-d and o-u-d-h.
The variations are mostly for the sake of novelty, meaning they’re the brands’ way of distinguishing themselves from the thousands of other oud fragrances that have flooded the market, although some argue these spellings to be more accurate transliterations of the original Arabic word “عود”. Which is spelled ain (ع)- wow (و) – dal (د) with the ain having a slightly guttural pronunciation ’oud. So one could see perhaps where the A comes from, however, the dal at the end of the word is pronounced ‘d,’ as in the word ‘end’ so the ‘h’ doesn’t really make any sense in English, especially since “dh” is often used for other Arabic letters, but that’s just semantics… 🙂
Oud is also known as agarwood and less so as eaglewood, aloeswood, qaharu, gaharu and by many other regional terms, but in the original sense, it refers to the aquilaria and gyrinops genera of the Thymelaeaceae family of trees only found in regions of India and the Far East.
There are also other more common aromatic woods that some dilute and confuse agarwood oil with, but more on that later.
Availability
Given the huge industry, agarwood has been synthesized into aroma chemicals and is also now widely cultivated in plantations covering hectares of the Far East, however, the olfactory profiles produced from the plantations commercially are a faint echo of the great history of wild oud.
Given the complex and desirable effects wild oud imparts on perfume, perfumers and designers have been searching for an ‘affordable alternative’ but the oud aroma chemicals fail to exhibit the complex profiles and characteristics of the legendary substance and to convey the degree of satisfaction, so they’re turning to the remnants of its existence, the plantation-grown oud known as pure oud or ‘natural oud.’
The legacy is not lost on the commercial industry, and eager to capitalize on the great history, perfumers and brands reference legendary regions of oud such as ‘oud from Laos’… however, these once-great regions are now far from legendary. Covered in mono-cultured plantations they produce generic oud that bears little resemblance to the wild oud that put the country on the map.
With an increasing number of plantations, finding natural oud oil is not difficult, hence the many dealers aka ‘vendors’ popping up all over the place, but finding exceptional oud oil is a different story… In fact these days it’s next to impossible to get hold of.
The highest quality artisanal oud oil was produced from wild trees that had been left to naturally mature undisturbed by mankind in pristine terroir for decades. The resin formed, layer upon layer, deeper and deeper into the trees adding to its depth and complexity, transforming from Kyen to Seah, and perhaps even to Kinam, the highest grade of oud.
(I’ll be putting out a detailed video on raw agarwood, the grades and their differences soon so if you haven’t already, subscribe now to be sure you see it).
Recent History of Oud Cultivation
Until the turn of the century, the wild agarwood trade was a civil affair. Then with a ‘big bang’, wild sources were wiped off the map by profit-driven campaigns to obtain as much of the material as possible, as quickly as possible.
Given the ‘gold rush’, the individuals in the jungles known as ‘hunters’ disregarded that only 7 out of every 100 wild aquilaria trees actually contained any oud resin, and cut down every tree found, almost completely depleting the wild reserves with most of the valuable raw material ending up in the Chinese market. And that which remains standing under close Governmental regulations and monitoring with many prohibitions implemented.
Natural Formation and Development in the Wild
One of the most phenomenal aspects to oud is its formation, because of the miraculous circumstances surrounding its development in the wild.
The aromatic resin formation known as oud is the tree’s immune response system to traumas; traumas which came from various natural means, such as lightning strikes, strong winds breaking branches, elephants or tigers mauling the bark, or even parasitic mold and fungi. Borer insects and ants also spread the mold or fungi to various parts of the tree through nesting or tunneling within the trunk carving elaborate labyrinths.
Thereafter in the weakened state, an infection may spread through the tree further triggering the immune response, yet it’s not the infection or the ‘parasitic mold’ causing the resin formation throughout the tree, but rather the trees immune response to such attacks that develops the resin.
The aromatic resin forms as a repair to the damaged tree with the rarest wild trees ultimately perishing from the extent of the infection or trauma and as if to give one more time in their death the tree yielded the most valuable aromatic in the world; oud.
Artisanal oud oil articulates the full story, accurately expressing and honoring the true essence and history of the oud’s formation, literally transforming the tree’s history aromatic resin, into a Spirit through the alchemical process of distillation.
The pure and “natural oud” nowadays tells a far different story, hectares of jungle are cleared for monoculture plantations which undergo a far different process with some of the so-called plantations more resembling hospitals or factories with iv bags literally hanging from the trees, or large syringes injected into the trees dripping lab concocted inoculate into the hormone boosted saplings riddled with nail and drill holes with most cut down at no more than 10-15 years old, and some at a mere 5 years of resin formation… This is the sad truth of natural oud behind the scenes.
The resulting resin formation yields oils with shallow, linear profiles which the industry peddles as natural. The uniform, reproducible generic profile perfectly conforms to the designer and pseudo niche perfume house uses.
These pure and “natural oud” oils are also what most vendors on the proverbial streets of the internet deal on the corner, the oils have just enough oud to make you want more but are far from the satisfying depths and replete enriching profiles of genuine artisanal oud oil.
To meet the needs of mass production, large firms like Givaudan and Firmenich produce synthetic aroma chemicals such as Black Agar Givco and Oud Synthetic 10760 E.
One whiff of these will reveal the oud ingredient within many mainstream oud fragrances, yet these aroma chemicals each only portray a single profile from the range exhibited by natural oud, and barely scratch the surface of artisanal oud profiles.
Synthetic oud often exhibits cedarwood-like and leathery notes with the worst of them resembling. . . . well, let’s just say: the least pleasant origin of indole. . . perhaps in an attempt to replicate the oud mass-produced in India. . . With its fecal fermented profile…
Half a liter of these aroma chemicals can be readily purchased for little over $500, about $1 a gram. . .
Consequently, the market for essential agarwood oil has become tainted by the spread of synthetic products being sold as ‘oud, aoud parfum, oudh eau de toilette’ etc, while in fact they hardly ever contain any actual agarwood oil, only its price-tag.
Oud: The Note
Because of its value in perfumery and its expansive worldwide demand.
The perfume industry has flooded the market with synthetic oud aroma chemicals, watering down and convoluting the legacy of oud with their shallow and linear plantation ouds.
To be blunt, most brands starting to use the term are just milking the cash cow that is the growing trend and vast market of wealthy Arab and Middle-eastern nations given their affinity towards everything oud, and nothing to do with appreciation of the fine aromatic.
The use of oud as a term has never been more widespread, nor has the quality ever been so low. For commercial purposes, oud is any ratio of the lowest grade ‘agarwood oil’ in combination with any other oil, be it of natural or synthetic origin.
Some commonly used natural adulterates include the white portion of the aquilaria tree, vetiver, nagarmotha also known as cypriol (even used in ‘kinam’ compositions of others), and crocodile wood.
Crocodile wood most often refers to a member of the Thymeleacea family of the aetoxylon genus, rather than the aquilaria, and the tree produces visually impressive wood, often carved and fraudulently sold as agarwood online, and the shavings from which are commonly used in oud distillations to boost the yield, diluting the profile.
The term “buaya” is also widely used as slang by the hunters for any number of woods which can be used at the distilleries as diluents.
Commercially the note could be any combination of dioctyl phthalate also known as (DOP) in conjunction with other dollar store synthetics.
So while most ouds available are combinations of synthetics or watered-down plantation oud.
Ensar Oud offers vintage oud oils – oud distilled many years ago in trademark fashion, from a grade of agarwood now literally impossible to get hold of; which was then left to naturally age and mature like fine wine in a cellar.
And has procured the oud collection of the late Sultan of Oman, Sultan Qaboos which are ouds aged decades, and produced decades before…
But finding premium-grade raw agarwood is only half the story.
A great deal of fantastically good oud wood has also been wasted due to poor distillation procedures.
An orchestra, after all, composed by a do-it-yourselfer in their bathroom is not the same as Mozart.
Artisanal Oud
Rather than synthetic one-note wonders; when produced at the hands of a Master Composer a single oud oil can possess complexities and depth that surpass most designer fragrances on the market…
Psychoactive is one way to describe Artisanal Agarwood Oil. Mind-blowing is another. A perfumer’s guilty pleasure, artisanal oud oil is without a doubt the most valued and refined olfactory merchandise available anywhere.
And the distillation of such oil is an art form in its own right.
Producing high-end agarwood oil today is all but a thing of the past because we no longer have ready access to the quality of raw agarwood that established its legendary status.
However, the unheard-of distillation techniques and rigid standards of purity ensure that the agarwood oil you get from Ensar Oud is a very different product compared to mainstream ouds. These generic “pure natural ouds”, and commercial ouds are widely available from the many street vendors, the ‘overnight artisans’ and armchair distillers who take advantage of the niche arduously pioneered by Ensar, who Fashion Week Online named “The Man who Brought Oud to the West.”
Unfortunately, unsuspecting fragrance lovers new to oud who are unaware of the differences. With no regulations, any imposter can (and often does) frame their oud as ‘artisanal’ when they’re as original as a framed reprint of the Mona Lisa.
Established in 2004, Ensar Oud (originally selling as oriscent.com) brought his intimate involvement and hands-on, on the ground quality control to oud. He ensured that genuine incense grade agarwood is used in the production of the artisanal agarwood oils, not the alternatives which every honest distiller will admit to adding to the pots because nowadays diluting is an industry-wide “standard.”
This degree of quality is too expensive for most perfumers and distributors to implement on a large scale, which is why the small batches of exquisite quality Ensar Oud oils sell out in short order.
Have a look at what Ensar Oud derives their raw materials from…
Now, look at what most quote/unquote ‘oil grade’ agarwood from plantations looks like…
How Cheap Oud is Made
Yup, that’s right, whole entire chunks of white wood (most of which hadn’t developing resin yet) is ground up and thrown into the pots boosting yields, but diluting the aromatic quality in the process making their oil even more shallow. You see only the resin of the tree in various stages of development is aromatic, yet the white wood will still produce oil ‘boosting’ the yields but diluting the aroma.
Another yield boosting technique commonly used by commercial distilleries greatly impacting the aromatic quality of the oud oil is lengthy pre-distillation soaks. This is also where the misconception that all oud has a barnyard and fecal smell comes from…
The distillers soak the ground-up agarwood dust in water; sometimes for months (without changing it)
Anaerobic fermentation begins and the wood becomes completely saturated and begins to break down.
The saturated wood yields more oil when distilled, but the aroma of that oil is as funky as you would expect from what is literally rotting wood, and this process is largely the reason oud has gained the reputation of smelling offensive or foul; because that oud actually is, but that is not artisanal oud.
Oud of Indian, Cambodian and Laotian origins are most widely known for those unpleasant fermented profiles.
How an Artisan Makes Oud (& the Variables He Controls)
Yet the same oud in the hands of an artisan can elicit aromas with a depth and complexity that surpasses many fragrances on the market, with perfect balance and seamless transitions.
The possible tweaks which can elicit unusual notes are endless.
Artists can hypothetically distill Assamese oud (renowned for its animalic smell) as well as Cambodian, Thai, and Bornean) oils to exhibit the most flamboyant bright scent profiles.
But here is where the unique aesthetic of the Artisan must come into the picture, take a firm grip on the reins, and direct his journey of olfactory discovery through inventiveness and creativity in the direction that he feels is right. Imparting his signature into the oud oils.
There is a Golden Mean which raw materials, distillation techniques, and all the know-how and expertise of the artisan can aim to attain in this craft: The scent which the oud wood gives off when gently heated; the oleoresin of the wood.
Ensar Oud considers any departure from that golden mean as a fail, after all the smoke of burning oud chips is the epitome of oud, Par Fumé at its best and well-crafted artisanal oud oil gives you that aroma for hours on end.
Grades of Oud
Of course, there are many grades of agarwood quality, with Kyara or Kinam and sinking-grade wood being the most sought-after types and I’ll get into the differences between Kyara and Kinam in a later video.
But in short, its status as the pinnacle of oud makes Kyara the most coveted incense in the world. This is why Oriscent Ouds that capture its unearthly scent command the highest prices of $1,700 + per gram.
But after the raw material is procured then the real nitty-gritty of artisanal oud distillation begins.
Water Quality
For example, the mineral content of the water you use during distillation has a spectacular effect on the oil.
Distill an Indian oil in Evian drinking water and rather than the fermented profile standard for Assam, you might just end up with a sweet gourmand profile as delicious as honey.
And Ensar Oud has long since done exactly that. Eliciting easy-to-wear profiles from regions responsible for the stinky-oud stigma so widely spread. Oud oils from Assam, Meghalaya, Haflong, Burma, Manipur, and Bhutan which are aging with floral, sumptuous, and elegant profiles with absolutely zero ‘stank’ to them.
Combining Variables:
But water is only one out of a dozen factors… The material the pot for cooking is made of plays a major role, as does the method of soaking – not to mention pot conditioning…
What the containers you soak the oud in are made of matters too, as do the ducts inside the boilers.
And don’t forget the condenser.
You might distill 100-year-old Bhutanese raw materials in copper with zero soak and get a rosy Oud oil, yet if you soak them for two weeks and cook in steel the oil will smell more like champaca and tuberose.
You might soak in Evian for a week and cook in groundwater, or soak in groundwater for a month and cook in Evian.
You might soak in Evian for two weeks then re-soak in groundwater for another two weeks, or soak in groundwater for a week followed by a three-week Evian soak.
You might soak in plastic or in clay or in ceramic.
You might cook in copper or stainless steel or in glass…
The variables are many and the ways you can combine them virtually endless…
Oud Regions
As with any art medium, there are also certain fundamental constants such as the region of origin and genus of the material.
Cambodia, India (comprised of several East Indian countries) and Thailand are perhaps the most internationally renowned origins, although agarwood also grows in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Commercially, broad categories of scent are assigned to the regional variations, India is animalic, Cambodia fruity, and Thai ouds sweet. These general profiles of natural oud are what the flavor and fragrance conglomerates have replicated, and for the most part these scent categories are where the differences in commercial ouds end.
Yet just like their fruit-bearing counterparts, agarwood trees produce radically different types of resin and therefore smells.
To the same degree that snake fruit can be said to resemble durian, Indian oud oil ‘resembles’ Cambodian, and Bornean resembles Papuan.
They are all ‘oud’ to the same extent that papayas, dragon fruit, lychee, kiwi and oranges are all fruits; but that is where the similarity ends.
All further comparisons, whether in chemical make-up, olfactory profile, method of inoculation, peak maturation, fermentability, and optimal extraction techniques hold as much water as similar comparisons would between different fruit-bearing trees.
The best way to harvest mangosteen bears no relevance to harvesting watermelons and the optimal extraction method for orange juice is of little relevance to mulberries.
When distilled artisanally, purposefully and in much smaller, higher-quality batches, each oil becomes a unique fragrance, fabulously complex with up to 150 aromatic compounds within a single artisanal oud oil.
While commercial ouds have to be blended to be of interest, artisanal ouds can be worn neat as a standalone fragrance.
Ensar Oud harnesses the genus, variances in terroir, and the length of development of the resin using the right combination of equipment, temperature and water to elicit replete nuanced profiles, harmonizing all of the variables capturing vast vertical and horizontal complexities giving you a heavenly, luxury scent.
Artisanal oud is so much more than a single note, it’s a symphony orchestra with as many nuances as there are pitches of frequency.
And just as a composer harmonizes the sounds of the instruments, the producer harmonizes the distillation variables to elicit the profile he envisioned.
Conclusion
For the ‘big fragrance houses’, oud it is merely a scent category, a buzzword fittingly tied to the oil dollar, the dinar…
Synthetic ouds are now openly mixed into oud oils of long-established agarwood distributors in the Arabian Gulf, and widely used in most mainstream oud perfumes.
Natural oud as an aromatic is little better, with its main purpose to replace the synthetics in perfume which fail to exhibit the real smell of oud and its characteristics, and to appeal to the developing wellness lifestyle market with its natural label, of course omitting the hectares of jungle that were felled in the process, and the factory conditions of the plantations.
Oud earned its status from wild sources, and as an aromatic, the upper echelon of artisanal oud oils exhibit a degree of depth and vertical intensity unsurpassed by any single aromatic, and a horizontal complexity (the multilayeredness of the scent) that rivals and in many cases surpasses mainstream and designer fragrances.
Authentic wild oud sources now are almost nonexistent and most of what remains isn’t found on the market but deep in the vaults of private collectors and estates. The Oud of legend earned its status through its haunting aroma and intrinsic soul-stirring attributes.
Once only available to Prophets, Emperors, Sultans and Kings, a few traces remain, passing through the hands of passionate and eccentric artisanal oud producers and into the hands of the equally rare individual who appreciates art for the details, the brilliance of each stroke, the subtle-nuanced hues and intensity of the color saturation.
When investing in an oud olfactory work of art; be sure to get yours from the established authentic source (such as OudBar, which sells some exclusive ouds distilled by Ensar and various other distillers).
What Next?
Go ahead and browse our various categories of artisanal oud to find one that best matches your personality:
If you are stuck, you can just start a chat with one of our oud experts and we’ll be more than happy to help you out.
