Melayya
$199
If you happen to have few Kelantan oud chips or any premium Malaysian oud chips, go on… light ‘em up and then
There’s a big discrepancy in the Indo-Malay oud scene.
On one hand, it’s possible to distill fantastic oud from wild-harvested aquilarias (typically malaccensis, hirta, or microcarpa), but on the other hand it’s a mission to find more affordable quality alternatives.
They’ve started to plant and cultivate agarwood saplings in Indonesia and Malaysia, many of these being aquilaria crassna, imported from Thailand – i.e. not the local species that give ouds from this area their unique flavor.
This alone just adds to the disappearance of an authentic Malaysian oud experience, archiving the profiles that make Indo-Malay oils so unique. The cultivation trend across the oud world is in many ways a move towards the crassnafication of the oud world so that not long from now ouds from different places will smell more and more alike.
Quality West Malaysian oils are far and few between and you can expect to pay $550 – $790+ a bottle. Melayya gives you a glimpse into this sweet-resinous world for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost you to enter this arena.
I’m not talking Borneo here, but rather the scent profiles of West Malaysian agarwood… the “Land of Lightning” peninsula that includes the legendary jungles of Penang, Kelantan, and Terengganu.
Resin-heavy, smoke-incense ouds often start off with those defining chords, then typically descend into a brighter, fruitier, or woodier drydown.
The rate of this transition depends on the percentage of agarwood that gives it that smokey boost – a small percentage of incense-grade agarwood may give it a noticeable but brief lift in the opening before the profile of the batch(es) that make up the bulk of the distillation start to emerge and eventually dominate.
No cultivated Malay with a smell this bang-on would cost so little. A whiff of Melayya and a veteran oudhead’s nose would instantly jump to $550+ caliber wild ouds to compare this to. Anything less doesn’t match. That’s because this oud actually contains a good chunk of wild agarwood…
To achieve this smell and highlight the resinous blast of incense-grade West Malayu agarwood without having to charge what such a distillation would otherwise cost ($550+), we’ve incorporated batches of wild Kelantan, wild Sumatran, and wild+cultivated harvests from across Cambodia. The total percentage of wild agarwood in here is ~50%+.
If you happen to have few Kelantan oud chips or any premium Malaysian oud chips, go on… light ‘em up and then take fat swipe of Melayya and you’ll notice that it’s the opening that’s slightly on the sweeter side before the incense oud smoke takes over the reins…
The resinous oud smoke wafting from the wild harvests soon dominate the profile, as the Cambodian harvests merely serve as a vehicle to showcase the tenacity of the big boys while still adding that jackfruit top note you smell as you first apply it – before the Malaysian resin floods it!
And that’s the lingering aroma you’d have wafting from your wrist, your forearm, your tie, your jacket or scarf, wherever you swipe Melayya, for hours on end.
This is an old-timer’s oud at a beginner’s price.
A riptide of oud smoke crashes on a shorebreak decked out with hirta agar strips.
A whirlwind of steaming malaccensis incense blazes through a noir petrichor-like Sumatran chord dipped in jackfruit.
Melayya isn’t oud for a novice. These wild waves of incense, this dark resinous base admixed with that wacky jackfruit jam sweetness on top is an oud oozing spiral best left for experienced noses to get caught up in.
That, or it’s the best way to get proper oud drilled into a beginner’s head for life. So much so, the intro-ouds typically recommended for rookies will quickly start to smell too pretty!
*PS: If this is your first time buying oud, I recommend you add Samsura, which is what we’d normally suggest to newcomers. Melayya is such a bargain and adds good contrast, between it and Samsura you’ll have plenty to keep your nose busy probing this exotic world!
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