Xiang Liao Ling

You must have heard the mantra: “The best oud at the best price…. We offer the finest ouds at the most affordable prices!” Well, it doesn’t get any better – and it certainly doesn’t get any cheaper – than this.

We’ve said it before: Mid-2000 Marokes are in a different league… When it comes to measuring out quality for price, early 2000s Maroke was the absolute finest quality oud at the best prices. This is that oud, at those prices!

When the Papuan jungles were first tapped they brought out the sickest agarwood. Wild centennial trees that couldn’t be more resin packed. Distill that kind of aloes properly and you get the best oud anyone’s ever smelled (Oud Royale No 1 ring any bells?)

Go to the same jungles today and you’ll have to dig underground to get the kind of trees that once stood tall and turned into oils like Maroke 2004. The few wild trees that remain standing in neighbouring jungles come at a price many times what we had to pay twelve years ago.

Just think about it for a second. Everything we know about supply and demand tells us that the asking price for Xiang Liao Ling should take into account its current replacement cost. We’re talking about a caliber of wild agarwood that’s on the verge of extinction, takes real muscle to track down and costs thousands of dollars when you do.

But here you are: A bottle is only $550 – the same price our Vintage LTDs used to sell for nine years ago! Now, try and distill this oud for $550 a bottle today and see how far you get…

Maroke oud smells like nothing else. Specially old school Marokes possess a primal spiciness / earthiness / jungliness / incenseyness / oudiness that’s really hard to come by even in the richest Malaysian oud oils. Xiang Liao Ling owns that profile to the tee.

It’s faintly minty, fully elemental. Earthy. Clean deep dark incense present in the top notes.The most enticing thing is its extraordinary herbal-meets-floral tones that smell as if you infused ginseng with water lilies, crushed watercress and eucalyptus. And then comes the dry down that shakes it all and steeps deeper into an incense drone that beats even Maroke LTD’s rich woody base…

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.