Reviews of Black Vetyver Café (2003)
by Jo Malone

Sweet delicious coffe on vetiver and woods. the coffe is sweet and it is better that way because bitter coffe note rarely dissolves into a scent succesfully. This is a well blended, smooth and manly scent. All of a sudden it takes you to a hunters cottage, in front of fire, with a cup off coffe in your hand; comforting. A bit flat though or may be unfinished; a few notes more would make it more shiny and finished.

Jo Malone Black Vetyver Cafe

Jo Malone Black Vetyver Cafe is my favorite coffee scent out there. Usually when one mentions coffee you think that indicates the scent should be a full-blown gourmand. What is completely refreshing about Black Vetyver Cafe is coffee is used as an aromatic note and not as an excuse to roll out the olfactory buffet of food notes. This 2003 release by Jo Malone is a coffee centered scent that is different. From the top the coffee note calls out its presence but this is the coffee of the roasted bean prior to being ground up. I can smell the rich almost nutty quality of a whole coffee bean and it is beautiful. Where another scent would start piling on with chocolate and vanilla this one takes a different road and instead turns towards the woods . The heart of this contains a woody note which comes out in stages and acts as a bridge to the vetiver in the base. The herbal, green character that the vetiver imparts really compliments all that has come before and finishes things quite nicely. This is a beautifully composed scent which shows that coffee is a note which can stand all on its own without needing something else to go with it.

Wonderful smell of salty liquorice meets me at first. I love this dark, spicy and very tasty beginning.

When it dries down, the savory quality continues to please, but unfortunately it looses very soon much of its strength and it becomes very weak. Personally, I would like to see much more volume in this, especially considering the fact that I enjoy the aroma itself very much.

I don’t get much coffee from this, unlike vetiver which is of course very notable. It has also very spicy tone; it reminds me of cloves although there is not clove in this scent to my knowledge.
Dark, sweet, little bit bitter, smoky. Slightly “oily” structure brings Black Cashmere in mind.


Great smell that is too weak for my tastes. And the lasting power is a total disaster.

This has a kind of nutty tone (like nuts, not goofy). I don’t really detect a coffee note. And I don’t get the usual sorts of vetiver notes, though I can imagine some sort of vetiver here. The drydown is interesting, a bit of "lite" incense there. This is kind of odd or unusual, in my opinion. It gets more powdery and sweet as it progresses. Don’t really care for it.

I had been warned off by perfumistas who claim that everything Jo Malone has ever done is underwhelming, but this is one I like and wear semi-regularly.

Its a journey perfume-- starts as coffee and ends as vetiver. A little perfumey for my taste, but sooo interesting that I can't resist jumping on every once in a while for the ride...

I agree with Surreality that the coffee note is very gourmande, but I fine the vetiver to be refreshingly sharp and green, and not so smoky.

The longevity is decent, and though the coffee open fades quickly, on my skin it makes an encore appearance in the dry-down.

The coffee top note in Black Vetyver Cafe is very sweet gourmand note, more like a coffee candy than a fresh brewed espresso. It reminded me of a coffee icing a local bakery used to use on one of their cakes. This coffee note fades in about 30 minutes revealing an earthy vetiver with hints of wood in the background. From here the development is linear.

The longevity of Black Vetyver Cafe is reasonably good; on my skin it lasted about 5 hours before it needed refreshing. The coffee note really projects while it lasts but the vetiver and woody notes stay fairly close to the skin. If you are looking for a vetiver fragrance that is a little different then this might just be for you.

Immediately the black coffee note is eviden,t smooth and creamy with sugar.

Lip smacking good.

Unfortunately ,after a very short time it begns to fade releasing the Vetyver.

It isn,t long lasting,but maybe in cool weather(it,s 90 F. this evening) it would behave
differently.

I’m not sure what I expected, but I didn’t expect it to be this rich. The vetiver is very well done, but the coffee note is wonderful – just like some especially lush freshly roasted freshly ground coffee beans. Oh, yes, I do get a bit of incense in the background, and, I suppose, the sequoia, although I have a difficult time separating the sequoia from the incense; they are both just that – background. What makes the coffee note seem so rich, and what I really love about it is that the coffee is not sweet. I’m tired of coffee notes mixed with sweet, and this one, even though it’s quite different, can sort of take the place of the coffee / fragrance love of my life, Vanille Mohka by CSP. I’m out of Vanille Mohka and I haven’t been able to replace it. It’s just a pure pleasure to have found Black Vetyver Café. Short on longevity, though.

OH MY GOODNESS - YUM! I'm in my 20s and this is just so yum. Think sensual, deep, warm smelling. It reminds me of incense or something woody but not burnt incense.

I am not good with these things but it's so delicious and I imagine would go nicely with the Rose one that is available.

I'm so going to buy this!

I really liked the initial burst of scent here, especially the citrus and coffee notes. Unfortunately, this almost immediately fades to just the vetyver scent, which is NOT my favorite part of any pefume. Also, I NEVER picked up any scent of temple incense of sequoia, which were part of the description that made me want to try this.

Gross. Will give you a bad headache after a while. It kind of smells like John Varvatos for men.


I myself am just not a coffee person.

If you want to smell like freshly ground coffee beans this is for you.

Black Vetyver Cafe is my second favourite from the Jo Malone line - right after Vintage Gardenia. Black Vetyver Cafe is exactly what it sounds: vetyver and coffee! The combination sounds strange, but it works magically well. It starts with black coffee note, and than dries down to a clean, woody vetyver. I can smell another woody element there, which makes it softer than just straight-up vetyver. I think it's sandalwood, but it could be the sequia note. I just wish the coffee note lasted longer and that the dry down was a tad sweeter - not as to make it “sweet” in a gourmand manner - just not all that woody. Vetyver has sweet & tart aspects and I wish they were played out a bit more here. Compared with Vintage Gardenia, Black Vetyver Café is more intriguing, yet less balanced in my opinion. I am not a fan of layering, but when layered with with Vintage Gardenia, it is quite interesting. The cardamom and white florals really complement it, and I recommend using a much lesser amount of the Black Vetyver Café.
Any way you look at it – from a vetyver or a coffee angle - this is a unique scent and should not be missed.

Indeed, in comparison with Mugler's damnable H*ll, this is a masterpiece. Now if I could only smell it 30 minutes after applying it, I'd give it a thumbs up.

It is indeed fleeting, and its a shame, because veitiver is a great note to "suspend" (as Quarry termed it) with this nutty coffee accord. Black Vetyver Cafe fills a gaping hole among coffee scents: the non-sweet. Those looking for coffee notes have numerous options: New Haarlem, L'Eau du Navigateur, Casual Friday, etc, but all of these have a sweet, gourmand voluptuousness. Not so Black Vetyver Cafe, which keeps it clean and bitter, courtesy of that vetiver. Hence the "black" (as in "hold the cream and sugar") I sense a little echo of L'Artisan Mechant Loup, but alas, by the time I can try to get a close read on it, Black Vetyver is gone :(

I haven't left a review for BVC? Gasp! I guess we take some of our best friends for granted.

BVC feels as much like a second skin as any scent I've sampled (that's 300+ and counting). Subtle, cozy, the coffee note is not strong--more akin to the strength of an empty coffee cup left over from breakfast, but it is perfectly supported by the dearest suspension of soft vetiver notes. Hinting at sweetness, BVC is entirely gender neutral. I'd like to smell this on any body, any age. The only drawback is its throw: It hovers close to the skin and can stand to be replenished every couple hours. On the plus side: This is the first frag I got a compliment on.

"Monsieur, have you been grinding your own coffee beans in the middle of the night again?", my valet asked me this morning.

"No, my good man," I replied, "I just put on this new vetiver scent from Jo Malone called Black Vetyver Café. Do you like it?"

"While I don't drink coffee, I can smell this aspect of the scent and it is charming. However, it seems to be fading fast, Sir, and in no time there will scarcely be anything to smell!"

I couldn't argue with him, for yet again he was spot on, this scent, while beguilingly charming straight away, lacks the lasting power that would really distinguish it and turn it into a contender. As it is, Black Vetyver Café pales against my cherished Guerlain Vetiver, which vanquishes it with stunning power, bravado, and persistence.

Wicozani