Un Thé au Sahara (2006)
by Stéphanie de Saint-Aignan

Un Thé au Sahara’s topnotes just might be the most convincing rendition of tea leaves I’ve smelled. These are not dry tea leaves, but tea leaves at that magical instant when they come in contact with boiling water and release their brief initial burst of scented steam.

The effect can’t last, of course, and while the leafy element persists, the moisture drains away in a matter of moments - we are in the Sahara, after all. What remains along with black tea is a dry woody-spicy accord with perhaps just a touch of incense. (Chai anyone?) It’s an attractive and sufficiently exotic composition, but lacks the impact of the scent’s opening moments. All in all a lovely fragrance, but I wish I could freeze the frame within the first five minutes.

17th December, 2009.

The mint tea opening of this is more a fleeting sweetness, like the heavily sugared tea favoured in the Middle East. The spice melange is neither sharp nor gourmand sweet but rather of spices used over many years permeating the fabric of a shop or dwelling. I love this fragrance, it may not elicit 'wow what are you wearing?' but it is exotic without shouting about it. I may be influenced by the associations of the name with the tale and song by Sting of the same name, but it is a haunting, evocative scent.

31st July, 2008.