How to tell good oud from cheap oud

Oud is one of the few things where the buyer usually knows less than the seller. That gap is where bad grades get sold at good prices. A few checks close most of it.

Look at the grain

Hold a piece up to the light. You are looking for dark resin sitting inside the grain of the wood, not painted on the surface. Resin is the whole point. Wood without it is just wood.

Be careful of sweetness in the bag

Raw oud chips should smell faint and woody when cold. If a bag hits you with heavy sweetness before anything is lit, it has usually been dipped or scented to cover a weak grade.

Cured wood like Muattar is a different case. That is scented on purpose and sold as such, and a good shop will tell you which is which.

Watch the first minute of smoke

Good oud takes a moment to open and then keeps going. Weak oud gives everything in the first thirty seconds and then smells of nothing but hot wood.

Buy where you can smell first

The single best protection is buying somewhere that opens the box, weighs in front of you and burns a piece before you pay. That is how it has always been done, and it is how we do it at both branches in Al Maigliah.