Royal Jelly

Note Profile

Prepared

About

The gland secretion nurse bees feed to larvae, and the only food of the queen. It does not smell like honey. It is sour first, with a bitter, phenolic edge, set in something thick and creamy.

Scent Profile

Sour leads and is the one thing all three sources say independently: 'a slightly sour smell and taste', 'sour to bitter-sour', and 'sour, slightly bitter, pungent'. One of them names the cause, 10-HDA and the other organic acids, so the facet has a chemical basis and not just an impression. Lactonic is the creamy body. Two sources give the consistency as creamy and a third lists 'creamy' in the flavour set itself, so this is partly texture and partly odour and the number is held under half for that reason. Mineral and earthy both come from one line, 'Earthy, metallic notes - from trace minerals', which is a single source and is why both carry a spread. Honeyed is deliberately low. Royal jelly is a hive product and keeps a faint sweet-hive character, but two of the three sources go out of their way to say it is 'quite different from the sweet honey' and 'unlike honey', so it is set far below the published honey at 0.85 and beeswax. Below, animalic is my inference from the material being a glandular secretion and not a quoted claim. Smoky is a partial home for the 'typical phenolic aroma' Pleva reports; phenolic has no facet in the 32 and putting it any higher would turn a medicinal bitterness into smoke that nobody described.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~4h lasting

Family Fruity

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

Origin

Secreted from the hypopharyngeal glands of nurse bees and harvested from queen cells. It is an ivory to pale yellow gel. Its signature compound is 10-HDA, 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid, and one supplier attributes the sourness to that acid and the other organic acids directly.

Usage in Perfumery

Used as a hive note alongside honey, beeswax, propolis and pollen, where it supplies the sour, creamy side those four do not have. Attested on 3 Parfumo entries across 3 brands and none on Fragrantica.