Sandalwood and Some Other Hydrosols - Good Ones Are Hard To Find

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

The reason I have never offered Sandalwood or Melissa Hydrosols is

because I have never found any that satisfied me. I buy in bulk ..

hundreds of kilograms when I can .. so I can't afford to pay out good

money for something that won't sell. I know that if a Hydrosol

doesn't satisfy me it won't satisfy my customers. The samples I have

received in the past didn't satisfy me was because they were all the

results of at least a double cohobation .. perhaps a triple.

 

This is a norm for the creation of Hydrosols from aromatic plants that

produce expensive, hydrophilic Essential Oils.

 

Some of you will recall a couple of years back I had a very fine

Chaste (Vitex agnus castus) Hydrosol .. I've not found an acceptable

one since then. Difference is my producer is upfront with me .. the

cost of Vitex Essential Oil is high for two reasons .. because the

yield is very low (around 800 grams of EO per metric ton of aromatic),

and availability of this wild grown aromatic is not as plentiful as it

once was .. so the labor costs to harvest it are greater .. those who

pick must wander a lot .. so the distillers do a double cohobation.

 

I have written many times on this list that folks should be careful

when purchasing Rose Hydrosol .. its a norm for many distillers to

double cohobate this product. I have also written that I won't sell

one that has been treated in that manner, and I never have. Those who

purchased Rose Hydrosol from me during the last big sale and following

know that it was a quality product .. but I was able to get only 350

kilos (and it sold out in 60 days) .. whereas in past years I was

purchasing 3 and 4 metric tons. My Turkish supplier does not double

cohobate for three reasons .. (1) they have a number of retail shops

throughout Turkey where they sell Rose Hydrosol to the public ... (2)

double cohobation will normally produce and Essential Oil that has an

inferior odor .. it will have a caramelized odor from having been

heated too many times. When a company is producing millions of

dollars worth of Rose Otto each year they can't afford to screw up the

majority of it in order to stretch their profits a little bit.

Finally .. (3) .. the Turkish Standards Institute has an official

published standard for Rose Hydrosol and double cohobation will not

allow that standard to be met.

 

I'll go to Isparta around the 14th or so of May this year and with any

luck .. I'll be able to contract for a bit more .. but no guarantees.

 

The Neroli Hydrosol that Chris Ziegler had some time ago (and maybe

still has) and that which I have now .. has not been double cohobated.

The nose will tell you this ASAP .. but for many years I didn't sell

Neroli Hydrosol because it was hard to find any that had not been

through that process.

 

What I am getting at y'all .. is for those Hydrosols created from

aromatics that produce expensive Essential Oils .. you might wanna

consider asking for a sample before you buy a large amount. If you

are after a few ounces .. then go for it and you will either like it

or not and if not .. you have learned and it wasn't an expensive lesson.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com