Ever since Baieido opened for business, you never heard of Vietnamese oils anymore. That was 400 years ago, which does a lot of the explaining…
Being the incense of choice of the centuries old Japanese kodo tradition, Vietnamese agarwood has always been the most coveted substance on earth. I mean, right up there with rhino horns, precious stones etc.
As we busied ourselves crafting Borneo 3000 from sinking-grade black agarwood back in 2004, wild Vietnamese aloes was already headed for the exit, seldom to be seen again.
It was an oil you wanted to share so badly, but then again, given the impending extinction of the wood – and especially the value attached to anything resembling the most coveted scent on earth – you just had to try to replicate it and sell the replica instead, if you know what I mean.
And that’s what we did. The replica we distilled came to be known as Kyara LTD, an oil you may have heard of. The only difference was, unlike Kynam 1, a Vietnamese batch I was never interested in parting with, Kyara LTD was crafted from Burmese agarwood, which was more readily available.
The scent was still dead on, the profiles very similar. Only it took a seasoned connoisseur to sniff out the geographical difference between the two batches.
Kynam 1 was preserved in a high quality Taiwanese tin, with Chinese calligraphy written on it by my distiller. Kyara LTD made history.
These were not oils that you sold to make money. Scents like these are impossible to attach a dollar figure to, because they are priceless. These were brand builders. Oils that not only made a company but spurred an entire market where there was none before.
The impact of Kyara LTD has been so immense, you can Google ‘artisan’ and ‘oud’ and see the progeny it boasts. They all trace their lineage back to Kyara LTD.
Kynam 1 precedes it by a year, and hails from the most coveted agarwood region in the world. The very same jungles that were once home to the fabled substance the people with Japanese bank accounts used to control, until very recently.
I had intended to keep Kynam 1 as part of my retirement fund. Sort of like a private IRA that I’d only tap into under the right circumstances.
For the moment, I think we need a restructuring of the entire so-called ‘artisan’ oud scene. There are too many lukewarm distillations being sold as ‘artisanal’, enthusiasts are confused. Oils bought off Facebook are being peddled as the bargain of your lifetime (which they are anything but).
With Royal Kinam and Kyara LTD gone, and their early collectors cashing in on their IRAs as we speak, I think it is high time to ditch my plan of holding on to Kynam 1, and build that market again. Only this time, with a little something from Vietnam.
Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I give you Kynam No 1.
All natural and chemical-free. Extracted by traditional means, without the use of synthetic chemicals. This oil does not have an expiration date. It will only improve as it ages. No "gassing" required.