How to open the concum and recommended handling? - The concum serves several purposes:
- For one: it allows safe delivery of the rose oil.
- Two: it prevents adulteration.
- Three: allows uniformity of quantity and quality.
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First of all, the concum needs to be placed in a vessel of warm water for about 30 minutes. This is to gently melt the stearoptene's, which are a natural part of the Rose Otto. These natural waxes are produced during distillation.
Rose oil consists of 30% stearoptene (the solid phase containing such hydrocarbons as eycosan) and eleopten (the liquid phase). The former is odorless but it fixes the scent well and endues it with durability. When cooler temperatures prevail the stearoptenes present in the oil cause the entire contents of the concum to solidify, but it only requires gentle warmth to cause the Rose Otto to become liquid again.
The lid of the concum is soldered on. It is a precautionary measure adopted by the Bulgarian Government to ensure that no adulteration will occur by "middle" traders. In order to penetrate the solder you will need a sharp but hard pointed screw driver and a hammer. Tap the screwdriver with the hammer at the very edges of the concum until it penetrates through the solder. Then you will easily be able to pry up the metal lid.
Once you have pried up the metal lid, you will find a cork further sealing the entrance to the bottle. The cork is surrounded by a cellophane type material from beneath. Once again you will need your screwdriver to lift the cork out. Be very careful not to exert to much downward pressure on the cork as it may be forced into the bottle containing the rose otto. Gently pry the cork upward until it comes free.
At this point I personally recommend pouring the rose otto into whatever sized cobalt blue, violet or amber glass containers you wish to store the oil in. The reason for this is that it is much easier to pour from glass containers than from the concum and also you can warm the glass containers in your hands or in warm water easier from small containers than the larger concum containers. Also there is less danger of spillage. This is a personal preference and can be adopted or not adopted according to the personal preferences of the user.
The description above is a contribution of Christopher McMahon of White Lotus Aromatics.
| | | | | Stages of the preparation of the concum: picture the concum, cork, and metal seal. | Prepared concums ready for certification. | The three stages of the processing of the concum. | 
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