Niche Tea Perfumes, Part 2
Given that I am currently working on the curriculum for the Tea and Olfaction workshops I will be co-leading at the Institute for Art and Olfaction this fall, I found myself intensely curious to see how niche perfumers interpret tea in their creations.
If you haven't yet read part 1 of this mini-series, you can find it here.
For this second installment, I am exploring five new samples purchased from Ministry of Scent in San Francisco. I sat with my labeled scent strips and observed the initial top notes all the way through to the settled dry-downs. Here are my impressions of this next flight of tea-inspired fragrances.
Unknown Pleasures by Kerosene
When I first sprayed Unknown Pleasures, the opening was a piercing, powerful blast of lemon zest—so bright and sharp that I was initially unsure how this would perform on the skin. However, as it breathed on the scent strip throughout the day, the sharp citrus softened into a warm, sweet caramel and vanilla base, eventually turning almost fruity and syrupy by the evening. It essentially smells like someone smooshed together bright citrus and rich caramel. Because of its unexpected nature, I definitely want to test this on the skin next. While I am not usually drawn to caramelly gourmands, this one is surprisingly pleasant and yummy.
Top Notes: Earl Grey Tea, Lemon, Bergamot
Heart Notes: Honeycomb, Tonka Bean, Caramel
Base Notes: Vanilla, Waffle Cone
Pomelo Oolong by d'Annam
This fragrance is elegant and highly wearable, even if it is less of a realistic tea scent to me. It opens very soft, floral, and powdery, bringing to mind the crispness of clean laundry. I picked up bright pomelo blossoms right away. In the late dry-down, it shifts entirely into the territory of a vintage handmade French soap. It became very white floral forward, heavily leaning on a lily of the valley note, and honestly, I did not get much of the promised oolong tea. Still, it remains a gorgeous, clean, and fresh composition.
Top Notes: Oolong Tea, Pomelo
Heart Notes: Osmanthus, Porcelain
Base Notes: White Musk
Matcha Soft Serve by d'Annam
Given the name, I fully expected this to be cloyingly sweet, but it completely surprised me. It opens with the most photorealistic, green, and bitter matcha note. As the initial bitterness burns off, the matcha facets soften significantly into a musky, slightly powdery skin scent while still retaining a hint of that original greenness. The base develops a distinct nuttiness with a very clean finish, ultimately smelling exactly like an unsweetened almond milk matcha latte.
Top Notes: Matcha
Heart Notes: Milk
Base Notes: Waffle Cone, Vanilla
Triple Matcha by Zhufu
Where the d'Annam was photorealistic, this is a much more conceptual take on matcha. It opens very dry, slightly minty, and incredibly clean—it instantly evokes the atmosphere of an expensive, high-end spa. In the dry-down, it develops a beautiful balsamic freshness—which, looking at the structural notes, is absolutely the frankincense pulling through. By the evening, a lot of florals had emerged alongside that airy, aquatic base. If you want an elevated, atmospheric wellness scent rather than a literal cup of tea, this is it.
Top Notes: Yabukita Matcha, Almond Powder, Nuts, Bergamot
Heart Notes: Samidori Matcha, Okumidori Matcha, Milk, Orange Blossom, Grasse Rose, Vanilla, Frankincense
Base Notes: Patchouli, Amber, Sandalwood, Musk, Labdanum, Vetiver
Aged Pu-er Tea by Zhufu
This fragrance was my least favorite of the bunch. It opens woody and intensely camphoraceous. It leans very piney, though—almost crossing the line into a lemony-camphor air freshener territory. While it mellowed slightly by the end of the day, it stayed linear, retaining that sharp, citrus-piney freshness without meeting my expectations for the rich, earthy, funky, fermented depth I was anticipating. I understand the constraints a perfumer faces, though, and not everyone wants to smell like the forest floor, am I right? (Just kidding!)
Top Notes: Pu'er Tea, Bergamot, Aquatic Notes
Heart Notes: Vetiver, Cedarwood
Base Notes: Vetiver, Sandalwood
Have you tried any of these tea scents? Do you have any favorite tea scents to recommend? Let me know in the comments down below.
