Reviews of Tea for Two (2000)
by L'Artisan Parfumeur

An astoundingly good recreation of smoky, spiced tea. This was designed to smell like tea and it absolutely delivers in that regard. I guess this could be considered the British version of Mugler's Pure Coffee. It also has surprisingly good longevity. It's really a lovely scent.

But...

Do you really want to walk around smelling like a fresh cup of tea? I'm not so sure I do. I feel as though the standard reaction people would give you is not "oh, you smell nice", but rather "who's making tea?" This could smell amazing on the right person, but I think it would be better off as a scent for the room (L'Artisan actually makes something close to this as a candle/room scent called The Et Pain D'Epices).

I really really wanted to love this, as I, like the heroine of a Barbara Pym novel, believe that no problem life cannot be solved with hot milky drinks. Namely, tea! I favor the Yorkshire Gold with a good splash of whole milk, but I also love chai, green tea with honey, Laspsang Suchon, Oolong, you name it -- I love tea. And I would love to have a good tea scent be my "signature." Tommy Girl is more fruit and flower than tea to me but still very good. As I said I thought this would be better, but I just didn't care for it much. It is quite strong and pipe tobacco/smoky in the beginning, and after a while it turns into a soapy smell, like the little strong-smelling soaps you find in good hotel rooms. Something like that and quite harsh to my nose. However, I may try it again and let it dry down more to see. Hopefully, more perfumers will try to get tea right. Serge Lutens 5 O'Clock Au Gingembre is sort of tea with gingerbread-ish and nicer than this, I think. Still, not negative, just neutral now.

As others have noted, this is a remarkably accurate rendering of Lapsang suochong tea. Unfortunately for me, Lapsang suochong (along with Vietnamese lotus tea, which tastes like postage stamp glue) is one of the rare tea varieties that I don't care for that much. I'm still waiting for the perfect recreation of a great Earl Gray (please PM me if you know of one!).

It takes a couple of hours for the lapsang to settle down enough for this to become enjoyable to my nose. The base is quite nice, a bit like Burberry London for men but richer, smokier, and less synthetic. If I could just get the base I'd probably buy a bottle of this, but at this point I don't think it's worth enduring the opening for. This is one of those fragrances, though, that I can imagine myself changing my opinion about over the course of a few years.

Although I'm not a big fan of L'Artisan, this has to be the best tea scent I've come across so far. While other tea scents smell either unappealing or too synthetic, Tea for Two is a beautifully balanced composition. As others have already mentioned, it's a spicy, cosy and smoky tea scent that is probably best worn on warmer days.

The only gripe I have with it (and with other L'Artisans) is its lack of complexity and depth - if Tea for Two was richer and stronger, it would be in my wardrobe immediately.

First off, I am a tea fanatic. I drink a lot of it, and I order the fancy imported stuff online. So naturally I love the smell of this fragrance. I would rarely want to smell like it though. I would never wear it to work or even out of the house. This would be a good fragrance for a nice lazy Sunday at home with a warm sweater on, a fire going, a comfortable chair, and a nice book. Sideways thumb because the longevity is horrible on me. Seriously, I just pour it on and in 30 minutes it is mostly gone. As nice as it smells, I can't recommend a fragrance with such poor longevity.

Wow! The smokey Lapsang Souchong tea is remarkably real here! May be too real.

I love Lapsang Souchong tea, but I want to drink it, not wear it. Would be great as a room scent.