Greetings from Indonesia,

It is a hot and damp day here in Yogyakarta, even though it should be rainy season it is stil very dry and hot outside.  Anyway today , we shall discuss about color of agarwood or oud oil.

There are claims that color has something to do with quality, this can be true or untrue. Because colors of oil is caused by how high the resin content inside an oil.

Abu Halus
Super Dust

Take example the Oud Ratu compare to Green Gold, Ratu is golden the Green Gold is like I name it, it is greenish and golden. Due for Ratu I use high grade dust in which it is a breakaway dust of incense grade chips ( AB and Super to be exact). The result is rather golden in color, yet has very very complex smell.

It somehow reminiscent me of Super King piece that I had long ago.  With vanilla, spice deep notes, that I cannot explain.

Resin content will effect the color of oil also the yield, the higher the resin content best use the woods for burning only, distill it would be a futile effort.

So Distilling super grade is a foolish and not worth it, even using lesser grade the smell can resemble the highest grade of Oud if using correct distillation.

Papuan Oud for Indonesian is one of this type, very much in resin but very few in oil. They are fragrant but the notes are notes of resin rather the notes of oil. Some resin will turn the agarwood oil color into greenish oud. In Indonesia this goes to Candan  oud.

Candan Green
Candan Green

Below is the picture of Aceh Candan Oud oil. I distilled this type couple of years ago and the raw material and it was a gift from an Aceh friend. The agarwood oil  color as greenish color was caused by resin, and the yield is bitterly low on sub standard side. But sometimes there are equal numbers in resin and oil content inside a wood, in Indonesian case this goes to Kalimantan, but not all part. The Green gold is this category, it is a balanced between oil and resin so the oil would be acceptable in number yet also will satisfy resin addict people.

And what about other colors? What exactly make these colors, the answer is it is related with material of the condenser and the still itself.

Usually agarwood oil produced  by stainless steel retort will have dark reddish color if it was resin rich, such as  the picture below.

Dark Kalimantan Stainless
Dark Kalimantan Stainless

 

It was Kalimantan, from Berau to be exact. Distilled in 2011 went to a friend. I think it was made into

a mukhallat by him.  This conclude that  color  of oud  or agarwood oil can be different from one area to another also it is not necessary a quality marker.  Some dark colored agarwood oil or oud oil are burnt some are not, yellowish agarwood oil or oud oil color can be from very young tree or can be from high grade dust.

So what is the important thing in oud ? It must be balanced in all aspects, like truly  master crafted sword, it cannot be too harsh, burned, and hard smell.

I think this blog entry getting too long, and it is near the prayer time here in Yogyakarta. I hope it can be a help for you all. Thank you and

Bye for now!

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