Originally Posted on Ouddict, the world’s largest Artisanal Oud Forum.
Hi Everyone.
I'm Pierre Black and I am here representing Tony Bolton and Aroma Sublime, formerly Agar Aromas Vietnam.
Since the company's name change in late 2019, the chaos around the early pandemic, followed by Tony's stroke and other health challenges, there has been a lot of speculation and misinformation about the company, as well as an outpouring of concern for Tony.
I'm here now to simply provide a complete update, and to announce our renewed participation here at Ouddict.
1. Why the name change?
I arrived in Vietnam and first met Tony in 2019 when he had just expanded the product line to include his in-house distilled, now famous, sandalwood and frangipani oils, and was looking for some help and a rebrand that reflected these changes and also added a little polish to the presentation of what was already a magnificent and highly-acclaimed curated artisanal Oud collection. We developed the new name and branding changes together, on-location, in late 2019. (We had such a fun time as well, and I have wonderful memories of this time!)
2. How's Tony doing now?
Tony is doing ok and is healthier now than he was in 2020. However, the consequences of his stroke last year have left him less able to be present and engaged online especially when it comes to typing and texting. He still oversees all operations at the company's beautiful headquarters in southwestern Vietnam right on the Mekong River near the Cambodian border. Tony has been really touched by the concern and well-wishes expressed by so many of you in the Oud community and regrets that he has not been able to keep up with all replies. For those of you who know Tony personally and want to connect with him, it's much easier to arrange a video chat than it is to expect an extended text chat.
3. Tony's wife Tha.
Tha is an absolute force of nature and has been through incredible challenges since Tony's stroke, not only taking care of Tony, but also handling most of the physical work around distillation and order fulfillment. What many people don't realize is that she has also become quite the Oud expert working alongside Tony since the very beginning. She is now the engine behind Aroma Sublime and deserves our trust, support, and credit for keeping the Vietnam operation afloat during these extremely challenging times. I want to acknowledge her incredible efforts and expertise. Since Tha has started taking on more of the distillations singlehandedly lately, she has produced some absolutely stunning Oud. She is the behind-the-scenes beating-heart of the operation today, and I'm so excited to release some incredible new Oud oils soon that are made entirely by her skilled hands and wise nose.
4. What is my role here?
I realize Tony is a legend in the Oud world, and I have no illusions about filling his shoes. While indeed I am now a partner in the business, I see myself much more as an apprentice in a support role when it comes to the Oud side of the business. When it comes to Oud and Agarwood I'm simply here to facilitate your access to their Oud and Agarwood collection. I do have my own line of other products and you will see these fully integrated into the Aroma Sublime product line, but you will also always know exactly what's what. I will not be focussing much on Oud in my own work until I am able to return to Vietnam when I hope to work again on-site with Tony and Tha. For now, they remain focussed on Oud and Frangipani oil production. While I am focussing on distilling resins like frankincense and a few special Japanese raw materials, as well as making some perfume and skincare products. Although I am most often the public face of the company now, and I am living in Japan for now, we do operate as a team and are always in close contact. As in the past, we are committed to integrity and transparency in all that we do here at Aroma Sublime.
5. Who am I?
What I bring to the table is my extensive background as a multidisciplinary Naturopath, aromatherapist, and herbalist and a particular love of working with aromatics and herbals that also provide sensory pleasure and joy as we use them. Through the pandemic, here in Japan, I have taken a deep dive into distillation and perfumery, blending Tony's mentorship with my own curiosities and special interests. I have been getting some spectacular results with excellent feedback from customers and a few industry experts.
My personal "Oud awakening" began completely by chance in Thailand in 2013. I fell in love with Oud there and the rest is history, as they say. I have been chasing oud ever since, but my professional involvement really only took hold in 2019 when I started working with Tony. I'm not here pretending to be an expert on Oud. I have some decent knowledge and experience in the Oud world, and a decent nose, but more importantly, I just get really excited about this stuff! I feel very fortunate to have had a couple of months living on-site at Aroma Sublime headquarters deep in the Vietnamese countryside working directly with Tony and Tha. I have learned so much working with them when it comes to Oud itself and the art of distillation! As well, importantly, I feel we have much more than a business relationship, I now think of them as family.
6. Why am I in Japan now, and not on-site in Vietnam?
Just before the pandemic, I had plans to build a life in Vietnam and continue working extensively with Tony and Tha on location. Pandemic-related travel restrictions suddenly prevented this.
I was on a quick visa renewal trip to Thailand, where I was also showcasing our products at a conference. During this trip the seriousness of the pandemic took hold and I was suddenly not able to return to Vietnam indefinitely. I was very lucky to slip into Japan just 2 days before they also closed their borders. Fortunately, I have many friends and contacts here in Japan, as I have been working with some Zen meditation retreat centers here since 2006. Since my arrival here at the beginning of the pandemic, I have been volunteering at a mostly empty Zen center. The silver lining of the situation is that, in collaboration with the monk here, we decided to start doing some small-scale distillation here, and have had access to some absolutely epic raw materials.
It is with deep sadness and concern, however, that I have not been able to return to Vietnam to help Tony and Tha on site, especially when Tony's health deteriorated. We are all looking forward to better times and my return to Vietnam and I am relieved that Tony's health has improved somewhat since last year.
7. Our Oud collection now...
Our selection and production process for Oud oils has not changed at all. It's still a carefully curated small collection of 100% pure, mostly wild Oud oils, that we are incredibly proud of. More than half our products are in-house distillations, and most of these are single-tree distillations where we oversee the provenance of the whole tree right from the forest. The small number of outsourced Oud oils in our collection are from reputable artisanal producers and are lab tested for purity. Most of our oils are aged 1 year or more so there is a delay before new distillations go to market. Tha handles 90% of this work these days. While I have the great pleasure of testing, discussing, and promoting the oils, I'm not involved in production. In fact, most of our Oud selection is exactly the same as it was in 2019, with the addition of only a few new oils since then. All of this reflects our commitment to careful curation and quality assurance.
We are feeling optimistic about what is to come, and eager to participate here at Ouddict.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported us in the past!
We really appreciate it, and look forward to serving you in the future.
Pierre Black,
for Tony Bolton and the Aroma Sublime team.
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