Jabuticaba
Note Profile
About
Jabuticaba is the fruit of the Brazilian tree grape, which fruits straight from its trunk. It smells fruity and sweet on top with a floral lift, then turns green, citric and faintly woody underneath. What makes it unusual for a fruit note is the terpene load. One GC-MS study across four cultivars found terpenoids made up 81.5% of the total volatiles, so the fruit carries a pine-and-herb undertone that berry notes normally do not.
Scent Profile
Fruity leads: sweet berry with a soft juicy body, the largest single reading in the study's volatile cluster. Green comes next, fresh and slightly waxy from beta-elemene and the leaf aldehydes. A citric brightness from D-limonene and beta-cubebene runs beside it. An aromatic herbal thread carries through the middle. A dry woody undertone reads as pine wood rather than cedar. A light floral facet comes from linalool, lavender-like and thin. Sweetness, a mild sour tang, a trace of honey, a faint nuttiness, a thin fresh spice and a whisper of tropical fill in behind.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
Plinia cauliflora and related Plinia species, a myrtle-family tree native to south-eastern Brazil. The fruit is a dark purple-black berry with thick skin and white translucent pulp. It is not offered as an essential oil or absolute by the usual trade suppliers, so any perfumery use is a reconstruction from the fruit's headspace rather than an extract. The published evidence is instrumental analysis of fresh fruit from the cultivars Sabara, Escarlate, Otto Andersen and Esalq.
Usage in Perfumery
Used as an exotic fruit accent, mostly at the top and into the heart. It offers a berry sweetness that comes with a green-woody spine, so it does not read as flat and candied the way a simple berry base can. It works next to grape, blackberry and acai for a South American fruit accord, and the terpene side lets it sit against pine, cypress or vetiver without clashing.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Jabuticaba
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Jabuticaba appears prominently.
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