Koh Kong ’76
The Great Cambodian Experiment was all about capturing the vintage red aroma of old time, now no more, Koh Kong ouds. Laced with Mr. Nhek’s red well water, the oils in the series – Kambodi Kuwwa, Kambodi X, Chen Xiang Khmer, and…
New age Cambodian ouds are a fruity, jammy bunch. That was until Kambodi Kuwwa and Koh Kong X stepped on the scene and killed off any pre-conceptions you had about just how brutally raw and un-fruity a real Cambodian can be.
The Great Cambodian Experiment was all about capturing the vintage red aroma of old time, now no more, Koh Kong ouds. Laced with Mr. Nhek’s red well water, the oils in the series – Kambodi Kuwwa, Kambodi X, Chen Xiang Khmer, Koh Kong K – were all about that raw, no excuses 70’s Koh Kong smell.
So, until now you’ve had fruit – and its scruffier twin, raw.
But what you’ve got here is a virgin incense profile that cracks open a dimension of Cambodian oud you rarely get to experience.
We actually have a Cambodi from the 70s that has served as the benchmark for the series, but it’s too expensive for most people. That's why we took the choicest batch of our GCE oils, unreleased until now, and added a 10% dose of Kambodi 1976, to give it that ultra vintage kick, and give everyone a whiff of the 1976's magic.
Kambodi 1976 is hands down the best Cambodi I’ve ever smelled. And when I took a swipe of this second-fraction, non-fermented extract, I knew the two would marry and become one of the most pristine smelling Cambodis of this decade.
The raw agarwood that went into the boilers in early 2014 was harvested in the heart of Koh Kong (not different batches of cultivated wood collected from various parts of Cambodia, topped off with Malaysian wood and sold as ‘Koh Kong’) from the only reported jungle left in Koh Kong with wild trees. The location of the jungle is no secret and everybody wants access to it. Not the least of whom being the China Market hunters, commissioned to cut down anything that looks wild without a second thought.
Following the Oud Yusuf ethic, we never harvest these trees and collect only the resinated strains. They are allowed to grow and grow and many of them have already reached the 100 year milestone. And believe me, to keep a wild centennial tree standing in the very heart of the Agarworld is no small feat…
This grade of wood, infused with natural Koh Kong well water, using a traditional copper distillation setup to mimic the method that made Koh Kong the world’s most famous oud hotspot in history, down to a T, gives you the very highest quality pure Koh Kong oud imaginable. Add to that two years aging, and you get a perfectly matured rendition of that 70s Oudh al Cambodi!
Then, as if this distillation wasn’t already chock-full of Koh Kong redness, the addition of our 40 year-old Kambodi 1976 infuses the aroma with an added layer of deep red tobacco sweetness that lets you inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale until you reach its resinous core. And oh my!… isn’t that a scent from another world!
Very limited supply.
The Making of Koh Kong 1976
7. Rubies, Prison and Agarwood
10. Mr. Nhek
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