Fleurs de Chocolat Mikado (1998)
by Fresh

Fleurs de Chocolat Mikado begins fresh — I guess the mint makes it so, but the mint and vanilla are so temporary … I have to say that at least the mint and vanilla last long enough to show a cursory respect to the company’s name. The chocolate moves in on the fresh bergamot, vanilla, and mint immediately, and it isn’t long before the chocolate is dominant. And what a chocolate this is! This is the chocolate of my dreams — dark chocolate, deliciously bitter chocolate, not the waxy, wimpy, sweet, milk chocolate. Instead of being cloying, the chocolate in Mikado is absolutely tempting, utterly luscious. I don’t get any tea, but tea never did go with chocolate, anyway. Assisted a bit by the pomegranate and amber, the chocolate still is in almost complete charge of the accord … Chocolate in its primal glory.

And that’s pretty much it … it lasts and lasts, giving a linear identity and an acceptable longevity to this fabulous chocolate note. Just as I always choose the rich dark chocolate over the milk chocolate variety in my deserts, I would choose this one over the over other chocolate fragrances I’ve encountered, if I were a person who enjoys smelling like chocolate, which I could very well become because of this scent. (Edit of 20 November 2007 review)

When I grab something in a hurry my impulse is Mikado. The truth is I love it. Chocolate dressed in Mme. Gres. The leafy herbs suck all the sweet out of notes that might otherwise be juvenile. Audrey Hepburn's chocolate.