Rooibos

Note Profile

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About

Rooibos smells of dusty honeyed warmth over dry hay, with a caramel sweetness that comes up after a minute or two. It is warmer than green tea, less tannic than black tea and softer than lapsang souchong. A dry mineral trace sits underneath the whole thing.

Scent Profile

Rooibos smells of dusty, honeyed warmth over dry hay, with a papery tobacco dryness alongside. A caramel sweetness builds after a moment. Underneath sits a sun-baked, earthy note and the dusty inside of a wooden drawer. A dried apricot fruitiness and a dry mineral trace round it out, with a fine powdery dust running through the whole thing.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~16h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand, Amber · Musk · Leather, Woody & Earthy

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

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ScentArt

What is ScentArt?

Origin

Aspalathus linearis, a shrub endemic to the Cederberg in South Africa's Western Cape. It is not a tea: Camellia sinensis is a different plant and a different family. Only the fermented, oxidised leaf gives the red-brown colour and the sweet profile; unfermented green rooibos is lighter and grassier. In perfumery rooibos is a reconstructed accord, not a direct extraction, built from dihydromaltol, cyclotene, maltol and sotolon, with rotundone for the peppery edge.

Usage in Perfumery

A heart-to-base modifier. It softens sharp citrus openings, adds gourmand warmth without vanilla's density, and bridges herbal material into woody dry-downs. It works in amber constructions and in gourmand tea accords.