Recently on a business trip i had 6 hours to spare so I decided to grab a bullet train ticket to the city of Dongguan, Guangzhou to visit a distillation plant/factory which I thought was potentially one of the most promising oud oil producers to have appeared in the recent years. Bullet Trains in China… [Read More…]
KZ ventures into oils
We at the KZ team had been deliberating this for a very very long time. Every time we meet a trader, a merchant, a supplier, a distiller, a farmer, we see a diverse range of wares to which we are incredibly selective and meticulous. Part to why we had started procuring oils, is because our students… [Read More…]
Alshareef II – Journey to the Heart of Oud
Ever since a few years ago, Oud had become the buzz word in western perfumery, all the major western perfume houses now carry different “oud” products. I had friends that would ask me from time to time to check out this “oud spray” or that “oud eau de parfum”, and I would respond like……. [Read More…]
Is Oud oil really more complex than the raw wood?
A very simple reason why oud oil can be sometimes perceived to be more complex than heating wood, nobody can control what goes into the pot or what are the scents of them. It is different from distilling sandalwood, or other coniferous woods where just a single chunk from the tree is sufficient to generate… [Read More…]
Kyarazen Oud 1985
Having received many enquiries on the identity of that mysterious drop of oil that I always sent out in packages, i.e. together in the package of the a few lucky purchasers of the Subitism heater, I thought I would push forward this write up, which was scheduled to a very much later date as it… [Read More…]
Little Vials of Joy – the ASAQ Thaqeel
I bet my website administrator is frowning at me right now. “Short titles to articles! The shorter the better! Clearer!” – she always exclaims at me, whilst frustratedly looking at my bad habit of having overly descriptive titles. But for this article I couldn’t help having an aptly descriptive title- little vials of joy. These… [Read More…]