Tarakan Vintage - The Attar Store
Just smelling from the bottle, the first impression is that this is a full on, full fat, straight up Borneo oil. Smells more Kalimantan or Pontianak to my nose, than Tarakan but that doesn't really matter.
What I mean by full on, full fat is this. I notice when I smell some oils they seem to have empty space, holes, or gaps in the aroma. Or like I really I have seek and look for what's there, rather than having it come out to meet me. I think this one of the reasons why I like these Taiwanese style distillations. They feel full.
There's a classical principle in internal arts training and Chinese medicine that goes "no hollows, no protrusions."
Or another way is saying, no deficiencies and no excesses.
Perhaps this is one of the guiding principles the masters used to distill oils like this. There's a case to be made for it since it's been said many times that in China and Taiwan oils of this caliber are used medicinal.
I could be wrong, this is just my hypothesis.
At this point in my oud journey this is a quality that I do pick up on and perhaps likely why I don't like most oils and don't want to waste my time and money on them.
In closing, Im getting that jungly cedar wood, vetiver/patchouli DNA that runs through most Borneo oils, overlayed with a slightly nose numbing slightly roasted bittersweetness. It's a bit multi-dimensional and shape shifting, almost like 2 profiles on top. Could be due to a mix of regional woods, etc.
Reminds me of some of the great old school Borneos we had from EO back in the day.
The profile, potency, and price are a win for me.