Time For Tea theme
You can order all perfumes featured in this theme as a pack of samples.
In this theme
Tea is the second most popular drink in the world after water. But since water would make a pretty boring perfume, instead we offer an invigorating selection of fragrances inspired by the tea leaf in all of its forms.
The tea plant, or Camellia sinensis, is an evergreen shrub. This species has two varieties – sinensis (from China) and assamica (from Assam). Together they are the source of all white, green, yellow, pu’er, oolong and black teas. The method of oxidising and processing Camellia sinensis leaves after they’re picked determines the end result, with black tea being the most oxidised and green tea the least.
Perfumers utilise natural tea extracts to introduce a novel texture to otherwise-basic floral or woody bouquets. Or as in the case of Myrriad by Pierre Guillaume Black Collection, to enliven an aromatic gourmand with the leatheriness of natural black tea. Tea-forward perfumes also provide a non-cliched addition to the “fresh” genre, shaking up the standard playing field of crisp citrus, green and marine notes.
The irony of natural materials is that they often smell nothing like our experience of the flavour or flower out in the world. Raw black tea, or green, or white, is a different proposition to the hot tea we savour in a cup. This is where accords and aromachemicals come in, giving us photorealistic or prettier-than-real teas (eg Thé Basilic by Molinard) — too fresh and clean to be true.
Whatever your cup of tea is, find comfort and stimulation in these carefully-brewed picks.
Vi et Armis (Latin for “by force and arms”), was the motto of the East India company. The olfactory references in the perfume explore Britain’s dominance of international sea trade across the centuries. Using imported and exported goods of the British East India Company as its key notes, this challenging fragrance recalls the words of George Bernard Shaw: “Emotional excitement reaches men through tea, tobacco, opium, whisky and religion”. In the case of Vi et Armis, the excitement includes oud and birch tar, winching the black tea note high in a sky filled with billowing, narcotic smoke.
Evoking the traditional smoking of tea leaves in ancient China, Indigo Smoke is an aromatic landscape of narrow serpentine rivers, blue mountains and incense-filled temples condensed into a complex formula of lapsang souchong tea, woods and incense. With notes of mandarin orange, apricot, guaiac wood and pine tar.
A scrubbed-clean treatment of green tea, with a bracing blend of lemon, bergamot, basil and mint. Blackcurrent punctuates the brew with its sour sharpness, putting some pucker into the pot.
In the distilled form, the leaves of oxidised black tea are a richer and denser version of its teabag self, in a liquid the colour of Vantablack, the blackest material in the universe. The bottomless depth of black tea adds mystique to the accessible-but-not-ordinary Myrrhiad, enlivening its soft vanilla and aromatic myrrh.
A roasty-toasty nose of matcha tea is your entry point to this delightful essay on the joys of the gently-reviving hot beverage. The nutty bitterness is supported by a beautifully calibrated blur of basil, peppermint, geranium and cedar.
A romantic long lie-in with a fragrant cup of Earl Gray tea in a bed of clean — but rumpled — sheets. Crisp cedarwood and earthy vetiver contrasts with the intimacy of musk, providing a haven from the downpour of real life.
This is a hazy, soft-focus tea composition, featuring a double act of green tea and mate tea. Lavender and cut grass adds crispness, while the hay note lends a powdery, pixelated quality.
Champaca is a tiny flower with a big personality: heady, insinuating, almost syrupy, vibrating between the rich sweetness of orange blossom and magnolia. It is also tea-like, which is why it blends so shimmeringly with mate leaves. Afternoon Tea brings the whole party: the finger cakes, the floral arrangements, and above all, the tea.
An interpretation of hōjicha ほうじ茶 (roasted green tea), a popular tea in Japan. The scent combines the roasted crispness of brewed tea leaves with the creaminess of steaming milk. Accents of gyokuro (high-grade green tea) and seaweed create a beguiling depth.