The Agarwood Distillery
A simulationBuilt from distillers’ accounts, reviews and published studies. Real distillations vary with the wood, the still and the hand, so actual results may differ. This is a work in progress and open to input: if something is missing or needs revising, write to us.
The AgarwoodDistillery
Choose the wood from twenty origins, the grade, the grind and the method. Then keep the process running and decide when to seal each flask. Every choice changes the oil, from Hindi to Papua, by water, steam or cold CO₂.20origins6grades3methods1tola bottle
The grader’s test
A trader hands you vials with no labels. Read the wheel and the colour, and name where the wood grew and how the oil was made.
The reading room
Where the wood comes from, how traders grade it, how a still works, and the sources behind the simulation.
Sources · 38 distillers’ accounts, reviews and studies
- Ouddict: on soaking
- Ouddict: hydro vs steam, yields per kilo
- Ouddict: a Nha Trang distiller’s diary
- Kafkaesque: Feel Oud, how artisanal oils are made
- Ensar Oud: a detailed guide
- A first visit to Assam
- Tenggarong cultivated gaharu distillation (Neliti)
- Masantara: a no-soak protocol
- Scientific Reports (2025): agarwood oil compounds
- Yield after soaking (ScienceDirect)
- FAO AGRIS: extraction methods compared
- BioResources (2023): supercritical CO₂
- Premiere Peau: agarwood oil yields
- Kafkaesque: six oud oils reviewed
- Kafkaesque: on distilling kyara
- Sulaym: oud styles and regions
- Hermitage Oils: wild Hindi
- Hermitage Oils: Burmese oud
- Hermitage Oils: Laos oud
- Hermitage Oils: Sri Lankan oud
- Ensar Oud: Terengganu
- Ensar Oud: Green Papua
- Ensar Oud: live resin vs dead Maroke wood
- Ouddict: wild aged Merauke
- Ouddict: Sumatra, Aceh and Seram oils
- Biodiversitas: Aquilaria filaria on Buru
- ITERA: gaharu in Lampung
- Ouddict: cultivated vs wild kynam
- Molecules (2023): grafted kynam chemistry
- China Daily (2025): Guangdong kynam plantations
- Live History India: Kannauj attar
- Big Think: mitti attar and the deg-bhapka
- Ouddict: natural colours in oud oil, Natuna and azulene
- Ouddict: what makes an oud oil blue
- Abu Oud: Blood of Sumbawa (Gyrinops versteegii)
- ML Ramnarain: shamama
- Premiere Peau: shamama attar
- Rana Safvi: itr gil, or mitti itr
This is a simulation built from these accounts. Real distillations vary with the wood, the still and the hand, so actual results may differ.