Satureja

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Savory oil. A fresh, medicinal, spicy herb in the family of thyme and sage, with a sharpness the neighbouring herb oils do not have and a harsh phenolic dry-out.

Scent Profile

Aromatic_herbal is the identity and both sources give it independently. Arctander says "fresh medicinal-spicy odor, reminiscent of sage and thyme". Berje says "medicinal, slightly herbaceous" and places the plant with thyme. Both uses of "medicinal" there are the herb-remedy sense, tied to sage and thyme, so they stay in aromatic_herbal. Fresh_spice is the headline claim of the trade source and the thing it says makes savory savory: "spicy and fresh, with a unique 'sharpness' not found in similar herb oils". Warm_spice is Arctander's own comparison point for that sharpness, "a sharpness recalling that of cumin oil", and cumin is a warm seed spice rather than a fresh leaf one. The two sources agree there is a sharpness and disagree about which spice it resembles, so both facets are scored and both carry wide spreads. Phenolic is now scored on its own axis: Arctander says "the dry-out is rather phenolic-harsh", and savory's phenol is carvacrol, the same compound that makes oregano. Smoky and leather carried that one claim as stand-ins at 0.25 and 0.12. Both go to 0.00. Nothing in either source describes combustion or hide. Below sit cooling_mentholic and dry_woody, earthy following the cumin comparison, green and citrus.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeTop · ~3h lasting

Family Green & Aromatic, Spicy

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

Origin

The Satureja genus, Labiatae family. Two species are sold: Satureja montana as winter savory and Satureja hortensis as summer savory. Berje steam-distils winter savory oil from the semi-evergreen plant. Enfleurage says the two are closely related and adds that summer savory "is a little harsher than the Winter Savory". Arctander, quoted by Enfleurage, describes the oil as "a pale yellow or almost colorless liquid".

Usage in Perfumery

Enfleurage lists the uses: "compositions of the forest-type, chypres, fougeres, or as a modifier in lavender bouquets and colognes with citrus oils and oakmoss. It blends well with rosemary, lavender, pines". Berje warns it can overpower a formula. Attested on 5 Fragrantica perfumes.