Agar Aura - pure oud products

Sokh Khmer

This product has gone the way of all those before it...
Gone, never to come back.

Grab our other oud oils, before they are gone too!

Description
Reviews

After four years of desperately searching for genuine wild Cambodian agarwood from her most legendary province, Koh Kong, we are overjoyed to finally present Sokh Khmer.

100% wild-harvested, genuine agarwood from Koh Kong. The stuff of legends.

As tempting as it was to use the wood to craft an oud in the vein of Royal Pursat and Raksmey, I decided to present something which most folks have never smelled before (unless you have access to genuine wild Cambodian oud from the 60's and 70's).

This is fermented wild Cambodian oud, crafted by one of the prominent veteran distillers of Koh Kong oud's golden era, Ol Teng.
Search east and west, you won't have an easy time finding an oud like this.

One whiff of this oud will reveal to you why it wasn't hard for Arabian connoisseurs half a century ago (with centuries of love for Indian oud) to declare a new favorite.

Sokh Khmer is Hindi 1's (non-identical) twin. Using identical techniques, and distilled in ancient traditional thick copper pots, the aim was to capture a scent which has all but vanished now.

By using the finest of vintage distillation techniques, and then improving upon them by combining it with Agar Aura's cutting edge extraction process, what you have here is what is arguably the most complex scent on earth.

Those of you who have been into ouds for quite some time... be forewarned: Sokh Khmer could be a tear-jerker. It will summon a powerful surge of nostalgia. In fact, one of my senior Arab customers could not stop thanking me for this oud, as its aroma transported him to his wedding day back in the 70's.

Whereas modern Cambodian/Thai ouds are all about sweet, cheerful, fruity flavors, this is quite the opposite.
Boasting notes of bold tobacco, well-used tobacco pipes, smoke, amber resin, and leather; to date this is the only oud that I can label as being utterly masculine (Agar Aura's general position of course is that oud is not gender-specific, so this oud is an exception to the rule).

Yes, there are clear undercurrents of red fruit, caramel and toffee, but they never steal the spotlight.

So how was this aroma achieved?
Unlike most Cambodian ouds which are either ultra-fruity or overly-funky, the way this oud was distilled was by painstakingly controlling the wood fermentation process prior to distillation. Most distillers use filth (yes, literally) to inflict as much rot in the raw material as possible, triggering all sorts of bacterial and fungal activity (signs to look out for: the aroma of bovine excrement or moldy cheese).
For Sokh Khmer, the obsessive control over the fermentation process coupled with our techniques which pull the richest oud extract possible, resulted in something totally different. Something new. New, perhaps, to many noses today, but it is actually the visage of Cambodian antiquity.

Some like their grapes ripe and fresh, others enjoy the product of artisanal fermentation: wine.
In early 2014, we had presented to you Khmer Khlem Chan, one of the two vintage genres of Cambodian oud. It is with great excitement that we unearth and present to you the second Cambodian gem, Sokh Khmer.

I loved the Soh khemer on first try and at such a great price point.
M.M. (Canada)

Really different from all these other oils. This really needs to be sampled on its own. I sampled everything at once and the bright intensity of the other oils did not really let Sokh Khmer shine. I liked it much better when I tried it on its own and am still having difficulty dissecting the scent – definitely leather – but my sample is almost gone. The more I try it, the more I like it.
J.B. (USA)

I really like Sokh Khmer, like seriously like.. I have been buying oud for 5-6 years now and sokh khmer has become my all time favourite. I'm so glad you produced a vintage style oud especially at your high standards.
W.R. (UK)

The Sokh Khemer scent is incredible. I have oils from Koh Kong & the oil you produced has scent that is in a different league. No fruity & sweet notes. It has a mystic - musky-woody note, middle note smells like a 200 year old vintage cottage , beautiful with new notes coming out every 40 minutes.
I.R. (Canada)

I notice in a lot of descriptions of oud oil the term "barnyard" which on the surface seems a negative, but best describes the primal organic scents on the first swipe. As the scent opens up and changes over time it bring in smells of wood mulch and leather overlaying the barnyard in waves and enhancing it. I find its scent vital and sharpens the mind ( never thought I would ever say that about a scent) My partner ,who incidentally loves her Sumatro Jinkoh I ordered from you, keeps telling me to "stop smelling myself" whenever I apply it.
As a footnote, because I will now bore anyone who asks me about Oud, since I have started using your oil, most traditional western scents and colognes seem to have an artificial tang to them.
J.B. (UK)

It seems everything you touch turns to gold! Literally, in that olfactory kinda way. With Sokh Khmer, I was expecting something darker, more "dirty," and yet, you managed to take something so deep, complex, and evocative, and allow the golden heart to shine! I find it immensely complex, yet very coherent, like an unfolding, from bright, grassy, golden green, to sweet, honey tones, to just pure yummy, bubbling chips. Somewhere in there, there's the occasional passing hint of, nothing like barn, but all the things we love about barn. The earth, the belly of it. Like if a rainbow unicorn ranch surrounded by a cinnamon forest was a half mile away, and whenever the unicorns have a happy thought , a gentle breeze blows your way.
B.D. (USA)

my favorite is clearly the Sokh Khmer so far.
R.L. (USA)

omme d'habitude , je les trouve toutes les trois très belles et intéressantes. Pour l'instant , c'est Sokh Khmer que je parviens le mieux à analyser : je trouve qu'elle se situe entre hindi 1 , effectivement , et Oud Darussalam (l'odeur du cuir Tané , le oud tel qu'on l'identifie habituellement ..) , mais en plus doux.
J.S. (France)

Absolutely for vintage collection.. rarely to find.. right to the point.. Reminds me of my marriage in the 70's.. you were not even born.. Maa'shallah taha your hobby made of oud made you now expert.. Jazakallah kheir my son
T.A. (Abu Dhabi)

This Oud is a Stunner!
M.H. (UK)

How could i not get a piece of your beautiful art. Sokh Khmer is a no-brainer for sure..
M.N. (Canada)

I love it!! Amazing!!
A.C. (USA)