Foodie Sunday: New scented teas from Providence Perfume Company

By Donna When I heard that Providence Perfume Company was introducing a new line of organic perfumed teas, I knew I was in for a treat, since I already love Charna Ethier's creative natural fragrances, and when I received them for testing I was not disappointed. All six varieties of these “A● Poth● A● Care” loose teas are outstanding, and very different in character; there is something for everyone in this lovely selection. Perhaps the gentlest of the group is Green Pearl, a classic green tea that is presented in the traditional rolled “gunpowder” style. It is so easy to drink and as smooth as one could wish for. When a tea is as unadorned as this it has better be of top shelf quality, and this is some of the best green tea I have ever come across, with a hay-like aroma and none of the astringency one might expect of this style of tea. Drink this when you are in a meditative mood, or when you need a calming influence. I sampled Yuzu Breakfast when the weather was still very warm, and it's just perfect for a summer morning. The formula is a little twist on the tried and true orange spice formula – the tea is the bold black pekoe found in the major supermarket brands and such teas as Constant Comment®, but the citrus component here is orange peel and the amazingly aromatic Japanese yuzu fruit peel, which lies somewhere between grapefruit and bergamot and is very zesty and exhilarating. No other flavoring is needed, and you will really look forward to waking up with this in your cup. Orange Blossom Oolong is so delicious I was wishing that it also came in perfume form while I was drinking it – maybe I can persuade Ms. Ethier to make some? I have always been a fan of the subtle yet complex flavor of oolong tea, and the other ingredients in the blend enhance it without masking its essential delicacy. It has a sublime orange flower and jasmine aroma and a soft, creamy personality. I am sure this one will be a favorite with true tea connoisseurs. I have been an Earl Grey tea purist for almost as long as I have been a tea drinker, which is a very long time. I was a little bit skeptical of messing with the basic formula, but Earl Grey & Lavender won me over very easily. The lavender in the mix is very refined and sweetly floral, not at all soapy, and it's a perfect partner for the lively freshness of the bergamot. This is also a green tea version of Earl Grey instead of the usual black tea, which may be a concern to other purists, but it really works here. For those who like a richly flavored tea with a fruity character, look no further than Brambleberry Rose. I really love this one, which combines fine black tea with locally grown organic rose petals, raspberries, strawberries, cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla. The result is a deliciously jammy rose tea, rich and incredibly fragrant. (It seems like most companies that make a rose tea just can't resist adding hibiscus, which makes the tea too puckery, but that's thankfully absent from this formula.) This is the perfect thing for high tea accompanied by delectable desserts and strawberries with cream, and another one that should be a perfume too! Last but certainly not least is Violetta, which is just ridiculously good. Green tea leaves that have been dried with night blooming jasmine to impart a floral quality are blended with Tahitian vanilla bean, violet extract and blue cornflowers. It reminds me very much of those violet-scented pastille candies, but without the chalkiness those can sometimes have. The sweet violet scent is true and so very pretty, like a breath of early spring on the breeze, and the flavor is truly unique. This is a strong contender for my favorite along with Brambleberry Rose, but thankfully I don't have to choose. You just can't go wrong with any of these. Image credit: Violetta tea label art by permission of Providence Perfume Company Disclosure: I received my samples directly from Providence Perfume Company.

Foodie Sunday: Tea Time

I love tea.  Even more than coffee.  There are several that I drink on a weekly basis: Earl Grey, English Breakfast, various green teas. In Los Angeles, we have the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which is always within a block of Starbucks.  The Bean (as we call it) has more tea, and in my opinion better coffee.  But the best place for tea in town is Chado in West Hollywood.  They have literally hundreds of teas that can be shipped to your door.  They also have a "high tea" in their restaurant where they'll serve you whatever tea you like with a good English cream tea, which is the best thing you can have on a cold afternoon, or what passes for one in LA.  If you come here, I urge you to stop in. What's your favorite place for a cuppa? Image: Chado

Jo Malone Tea Collection

By Mackenzie Reilly I’ve been hooked on perfume ever since my mother let me wear a drop of her Shalimar on my wrists. I was five and fell in love with the story behind the fragrance, named for a garden in Lahore, India – built as an ode of love from an emperor to his wife. I am most passionate about the stories behind the scents, their histories, memories, evocative abilities and cultural implications. I am fascinated by the concept of fragrance design as architecture, the truth and scientific clarity of fragrance chemistry, and the olfactory mysteries that the world has yet to solve. I come from an academic background in olfactive anthropology, and earned my bachelors studying the use of scent in various tribes throughout Africa, gaining a unique perspective on the cultural and osmological role of fragrance around the world. My favorite perfume is Dzing! by l’Artisan Parfumeur. ___________ www.joysocietea.com The cultivation and consumption of tea is a cross cultural-global phenomenon, its presence traced back thousands of years to China. Today, cultures worldwide are known for varying and often elaborate tea customs, like the Japanese who are known for their formal tea ceremonies, rich with ritual and heritage. Moroccans take their tea green with mint leaves and sugar, while India’s teapots are full of Masala Chai and intoxicating jasmine. On the Kohs of Thailand you’ll find tea with condensed milk and an unparalleled syrupy sweetness, and in Nepal and Tibet, tea is served with yak butter and salt. Americans tend to enjoy their tea iced and heavily sweetened, while the Turkish favor black tea with beet sugar. www.flickr.com It’s not surprising then, that following water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. The English are among the world’s top tea drinkers, where the beverage functions as an integrative part of British culture- one that has inspired the new limited edition cologne collection from celebrated fragrance house Jo Malone. High Tea at the Palm Court. Photo © The Ritz London. This five-scent tea collection serves as the perfect compliment to Jo Malone’s creative philosophy of fragrance layering – a way to customize your scent by determining pairings and ratios, allowing you to develop a signature scent or try a different combination every day. As fragrance is experienced aromatically, it is fragrance before taste. These teas, developed by perfumer Christine Nagel, are Assam & Grapefruit, Earl Grey and Cucumber, and Fresh Mint Leaf, as well as Sweet Milk and Sweet Lemon. www.jomalone.co.uk The tea-infused fragrance is certainly not a new idea (Bvlgari, l’Artisan Parfumeur, and Hermes among the obvious pioneers), but it has never been done like this before. Each of Jo Malone’s tea scents is sheer enough to benefit from the addition of another, though complex enough to be enjoyed on its own. Assam and Grapefruit: This has the strongest “tea” note, smelling vividly of black tea leaves with a bit of an aldehydic soapiness to it that is indolic yet still clean. The grapefruit here is more vivid on blotter than on my skin, but I love the idea of an effervescent citrus to balance out the malty Assam. For this reason the Sweet Lemon is a perfect compliment to this fragrance. A muted patchouli emerges in the base, with a damp, musty quality reminiscent of wet stone. Earl Grey and Cucumber: The trademark, signifying note of Earl Grey, bergamot, shines through a watery cucumber, conjuring up images of afternoon tea in London, with bright, aromatic Earl Grey tea and dainty cucumber finger sandwiches. A musky vanilla appears at the end to round out the fragrance into a smooth finish. Fresh Mint Leaf: I am a big fan of mint tea, putting freshly picked mint into a French press, pouring boiling water over the bright green, serrated leaves... the way they pour steaming mint tea over sugar at the souks in Marrakech... the way the steam rises to clear your sinuses, and opens your chest. This is the only tisane, or herbal tea, in the collection and, in my opinion is best on its own. A masculine blend of cedar and basil add some strength to an otherwise transparent scent. Refreshing at it’s core, this is almost aroma-therapeutic – nice both in the morning, or as a calming element before bed. Sweet Milk: This is my favorite of the collection - with creamy, milky lactones and a sweetness that recalls pure, white sugar in such a literal way it’s almost unusual. Sweet Milk hits a nostalgic note with me, reminding me vividly of the very simple, but perfect breakfast of oatmeal, milk and sugar that my mother made me when I was small. Sweet Milk is also a bit like Indian kheer - creamy, cold rice pudding dosed with sugar and cardamom. With a somewhat rice-y quality to it, the fragrance provides a pleasantly satiating feeling all the way to your core and has excellent staying power. This is a fragrance that blends into the skin seamlessly, the way a musk might. I imagine this soothing scent on warm skin on a sleepy Sunday morning, tangled in clean white sheets. Sweet Lemon: This is my second favorite to Sweet Milk. Perfect for the summer and a beautiful addition to Assam and Grapefruit, the citruses complimenting each other creating a spectrum of lush, tangy summer fruits. The sweet lemon, though, gains its sweetness from a fairly assertive pineapple note - one that actually overpowers the lemon. Alongside the pineapple, contributing to the fragrance’s bright quality, is a juicy peach and fresh, dewy freesia. …and if this doesn’t satisfy your tea cravings, British tea company Tetley has even come out with a scent cheekily called “Le Brew.” www.dailymail.co.uk

Aftelier Lumiere: Perfume Review

As a rule, fragrances develop from light to heavy, from bright to dark. On my skin, Mandy Aftel's new fragrance, Lumiere, progresses in reverse. Like a dimmer gradually being switched from dark to dusky to bright, the perfume slowly moves from the opaque, nocturnal-green notes of green tea absolute and incense in the direction of ever increasing incandescence. The composition steps out of the deep, cool, enveloping pool of myrtle green, wades through the translucent, pale waters of lotus and finally explodes in a burst of joyous, floral pinkness of boronia...A synesthesiac's delight! Available at Aftelier and Henri Bendel, $195.00 for 1/4oz. Image source, rodneysmith.com Perfumer: Mandy Aftel.

Comme des Garcons 2: Perfume Review

If I were to come up with perfumes to represent times of the day, Comme des Garcons 2 would be Morning. The pleasantly sharp floral-inky-rooty top accord is a wake up call after which the fragrance settles into a softer, cuddlier feel of a leisurely Sunday AM. Having given a nod to the de rigeur Comme des Garcons quirkiness (ink + aldehydes + incense do create an at once familiar and alien accord, one that is as odd as it is oddly attractive), the scent relaxes into what I personally consider to be quiet comfort. A tea note gives the scent a cozy, "domestic" feel, the balsamic sweetness of labdanum, magnolia, woods and patchoui makes it pleasantly fluffy...this is a scent to wear when snuggling under a blanket with someone you like a whole lot... wearing his t-shirt...sharing New York Times and bagels with cream cheese... To cuminophobs and fellow cuminophiliacs I have to report that the note is present but delicate...like a hint of sensuality in that idyllic NYC morning together. CdG 2 can be found at luckyscent, $100.00 for 50ml.

Perfume Review: Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan

Osmanthe Yunnan, “inspired by a stroll through Beijing's Forbidden City”, is the fifth and newest scent in the Hermèssence Collection, created for Hermès by Jean-Claude Ellena. With notes of yunnan tea, orange, osmanthus, freesia, and apricot, this is a gentle scent of tea subtly infused with osmanthus and fruits. Having seen both apricot and osmanthus (which has a fruity-floral apricot-like aroma) among the notes, I was a little worried that Osmanthe Yunnan would be a little too heavy on apricot, a little too fruity. It is not. It is a tea scent first and foremost, to my nose, with fruity and floral notes only serving as a delicate, gauzy, summery background. Yunnan tea has an intense, thick taste; in Osmanthe Yunnan this almost-spicy richness of Yunnan tea is toned down; in its turn Yunnan tea accord lessens the potential sweetness of fruits and freesia. All that makes Osmanthe Yunnan one of the most understated, light and neutral fragrances I have ever tried. The only bright accord here is the freesia note that, on my skin, is among the top notes. It subsides very quickly however, and from then on the scent is a rather dry, transparent aroma of (mostly) tea and (to a much lesser extent) fruits. As the scent dries down, I can finally smell the orange note, but it is very quiet and muted. Osmanthe Yunnan would be great worn on very hot summer days or in situations and surroundings where scents with more oomph are frowned upon. I am not sure, however, that I am prepared to pay the price ($180.00 for 100ml) for the perfume that has this little presence. Perhaps I will finally purchase a Discovery Set of four 15ml Hermèssences and then I will include Osmanthe Yunnan as one of the choices ($125.00 for four 15ml bottles). Both full bottles and Discovery Sets are available exclusively in selected Hermès stores. *The photo of Golden Osmanthus is from nature.de.