Kufi Myropol 2010

With the raisins it was like with the warm days, they had run out for Oleg some weeks ago. The slopes of northern Russia were still too soft, the Hoisey River was rocky and shallow, and so he would probably wait until spring for new dried grapes. Outside the log cabin, junipers and plums had been getting frost for a few nights, and as Oleg thawed them over the old stove, he breathed their fizzing vapors, like citronate, so tart and sour, soon bitter from the coriander. Thekuunu t'emten! mumbled Oleg from the papyrus, that smelled of sharp green wood and bore the recipe of Egyptian Kyphis. He still had frankincense, myrrh, and mastic, which he now cooked with the Cyprus grass in the tin bowl on the stone stove.
And so pistachio branches sprawled indiscriminately in the Siberian log cabin, spicy clouds of whitish-yellow resins grew into the tart husks of sour cedrates, threads of frankincense spun softly and quietly into sweetish mists of myrrh. Chet en thesheps! was the whisper of Oleg as he gazed upon the images of mastic.
***
Andrey Oleynikov is considered one of the pioneers of Russian indie perfumes. He extracts the essences of his unconventional fragrances from plants of the different regions of Russia to reinterpret his childhood memories from the Soviet era.
With "Kufi", however, he reinterprets above all the ancient Egyptian Kyphi (the incense consecrated to the gods), but comes very close to the ingredients that have been handed down in the 3600-year-old papyrus Ebers. He replaces calamus, styrax and raisins with coriander and plums. Nevertheless, "Kufi" appears very calamus-like sour and citrusy at the beginning, juniper still predominates at first, before the plum with the coriander represents a bitter-tart interpretation of the calamus-raisin chord. Soon papyrus (woody-green) and mastic assert themselves, while frankincense and myrrh stay in the background with a balsamic smokiness. The ritual is moderate to quiet in nature and lasts only about six hours.

(With thanks to Gold)