Mojito

Note Profile

Prepared 1 perfume

About

Mojito is a constructed cocktail accord: spearmint and lime over sugar cane and white rum. It is a top-weighted fresh note, not a boozy one, because the rum sits in the middle and the mint and lime sit above it. Perfumery treats it as a fixed formula rather than as a drink, and Sylvaine Delacourte writes it out as mint plus lime plus rum plus sugar.

Scent Profile

Mojito smells of sharp lime citrus first, then a cool spearmint that is both minty and herbal at once. A bruised, green leaf edge comes from the crushed mint underneath. A soft, sugary sweetness runs through it, like sugar cane. A light boozy white rum sits in the middle, never taking over. The whole effect is thin, cold and wet rather than rich.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeTop · ~2h lasting

Family Fresh & Citrus, Green & Aromatic

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

Origin

Not an extract. It is an accord built from lime oil, spearmint oil, a sugar-cane or ethyl-maltol sweetness and a white rum base. The drink it copies is Cuban: white rum, lime juice, cane sugar, soda water and mint, with the leaves bruised rather than shredded so the leaf oil is released whole. In Cuba the mint is Mentha x villosa, which is lighter and more citrus-like; elsewhere it is spearmint, which is stronger.

Usage in Perfumery

A top accord for fresh, summery and gourmand-fresh compositions. Guerlain Homme is the reference. It gives an opening a cold, green, sweetened citrus lift that a plain citrus top cannot, and it needs a fixative under it because every part of it is volatile. Suppliers finish it on a light amber and musk base for that reason.