Hyang Kang

Hyang Kang’s red kinamic burst is practically indistinguishable from certified red kyara. For me, taking a whiff is the olfactory equivalent of gazing upon a stupendous artwork for the first time, where you take a step back in awe as you lose yourself for a second.

Like hearing Beethoven’s 5th played live for the first time, da dA Da DUMM! And you experience a moment of transcendence. If you doubt a smell can transport you to such a moment, you just haven’t smelled oud like this. A shot of kinam that washes over your senses before it goes straight to your head and likely ruin you for lesser scents.

Wild Hong Kong oud has been off the map since before many of today’s oud lovers found out about oud. Over the past fifteen years, practically the only HK distillation anyone could reference was the original Royal Kinam.

But Royal Kinam sold out over a decade ago, which means most oud connoisseurs don’t have a single Hong Kong reference.

There have been one or two ouds out there that played on the name, but these were not actual Hong Kong distillations, just like there are cheap cultivated ouds today produced en mass in China that try to cash in on China’s legendary agarwood history…

Apart from RK1, Hyang Kang is the only other Hong Kong oil we ever got to distill, right alongside Royal Kinamfifteen years ago (2007).

In my book, Hyang Kang may be the rarest, most precious oud in the Oriscent collection.

No oud that could grow on Hong Kong soil again will smell like this, if only for its age alone. Unless you own the original Royal Kinam, this is your only glimpse into a time gone by, a whiff of the fragrant harbor nobody can capture again.

There’s no botanical, no aromatic of any kind that resembles Hyang Kang’s heavenly aroma. There’s an underlying spiciness reminiscent of the medicinal tinge to ginseng or ashwagandha, but only that – a tinge, a subtle texture, all awash in a soulful, smooth bitter bite comparable only to the hit you get from proper Vietnamese kinam.

*Hyang Kang is featured in the special edition Chinese Exclusive perfume.

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