Kumbaru

Note Profile

Botanical 1 perfume

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About

The fruit of the chanar tree. Burnt caramel and date molasses, thick and dark, with wet grass underneath and scorched wood as it dries.

Scent Profile

Kumbaru smells of burnt caramel and date molasses, dense and dark rather than clean sugar. A dried-fruit note runs through it, like fig or dried fruit compote. A scorched, smoky edge sits close behind the sweetness. Underneath, oddly, runs a wet-grass green freshness that fades as the note dries into scorched wood.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~20h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand, Fruity

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

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Origin

Kumbaru is the fruit of Geoffroea decorticans, the chañar tree of the arid forests of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. Fragrantica also lists it as Chilean palo verde and green wood. The fruit is sweet and is cooked into arrope, a dark, thick syrup like honey or molasses. Arrope is also a folk remedy for coughs. No essential oil or absolute of the fruit is sold. A perfumer builds the note as an accord, from coumarin, vanillin, dried-fruit bases and smoky materials. The tree's flower gives a separate floral oil, and that oil is not this note.

Usage in Perfumery

Kumbaru is very rare. Two perfumes use it: Miller et Bertaux 'In,' (2013) and The Merchant of Venice Venetian Jade (2022). Both place it in the base as a gourmand, dried-fruit accent. Do not confuse it with kumaru, the Tupi name for the tonka bean tree. That is a different genus, from a different region, with a different smell.