Nusa

This is the second release of the same oil for the purpose of learning and being amazed at the results. When we released Nusa the first time round, we released some and kept some for curing and aging using a different method. This method of curing involves water filtration, a process in which you lose a about half the oil however what comes out the other end is very unique in many ways. This Nusa is the very same as the previous Nusa, all descriptions below, the only difference it how it was filtered and aged, so here it is for you study, comparison and musings…

Do you remember ‘Nusa Tenggara?’

This beautiful wood seamlessly combined resinous florals of Vietnam with the oceanic slightly-Islandic mango cocktail of Sri Lankan Walla Patta and was one of the most pleasant Oudh woods to heat and enjoy. We were incredibly lucky to get hold of this particular wood from the elderly uncle due to its short supply as we shared in our previous release, If you would like to explore more about this wood you can read further here.

For those of you who have heated a piece of this beauty, surely your mouth would have salivated at the thought of a Nusa Tenggara oil. You are not alone. You didn’t think we would just stop there did you? the olfactory experience couldn’t just end there. The first chip hadn’t ceased bubbling and I was already planning on how to juice the wood and imagining what an amazing Oil would be produced…

Now it was time to think outside the box – ‘How could we convince the owner of the wood to part with enough wood to produce an Oil?” We reached out to the Hajji with whom the wood was and requested if he could kindly do us a favour and allow us to use his equipment to produce the Oil. Piquing his interest he began to question “So how fine you going to grind the woods?”…”are you cooking with gas or wood?” …”how long cooking?”…and so on. This must have been fuel to his fire of interest and thus we began.

I was not surprised by the Hajji’s willingness to be onboard, ultimately how can someone hold back from something they enjoy so much? I am forever thankful to him, I have discovered I gain so much wisdom and the ability to fine tune my skills in every interaction with the elder folk.

We dusted, washed, repaired and got a couple of his pots going. These were real old-school systems that were made from steel pots and copper pipes with a coil inside a barrel which acts as a cooling tank. I’m not even sure if those who made it knew the science or if they utilised copper for the piping simply because it was easier to work with for coiling back in the day. The science as we know it today is, to capture the top notes the quicker the steam can be cooled the better it is. Apart from Gold and Silver there is no other metal that will be a better conductor than copper and so, it worked out perfectly, because Nusa Tenggara needs the beautiful top notes to be bottled, they aren’t airy or heady but they are the most tantalising floral woody top notes you could stick your nose into.

With the wood shredded into hair-like strands and soaked for a handful of days, the cooking began within the week, the Oil was collected and flown out well before the Covid-19 madness, so it has been aged for about a year now. I feel ageing is an important part of the process that is left out today. Many a times we hear oils smelling fantastic on purchase and after a few months there being no resemblance to what you paid for. A major part of this comes down to ageing. With Al Shareef oils we make sure they have aged a minimum of one year unless there is good reason to release it before.

All our Oils are distilled following the unique Al Shareef methodology, which begins with the preparation of the wood, the steps in the distillation, and then collecting and our exclusive curing and ageing process. This means as the end user you are always getting Oils that are at their best.