To get a feel for the natural material, Andy Tauer’s Sundowner puts decadent tobacco absolute front and centre. Complex as it is, Tauer weds this to patchouli and cocoa notes to emphasise earthiness and dusty warmth in the base, which becomes the ground for a play of cinnamon, rose, orange, and bergamot – sunshine notes evoking the long and low light of the evening sun, shooting across the length of the horizon. Imagine sitting on the terrace on Elephantine Island in the middle of the river Nile near Aswan. Sundowner is a cozy warmth.
In spite of its name, Smokin’ Gun (BTSO) layers many smoke notes to produce a refined yet engulfing effect. Tobacco, incense, oak, and leather work in the service of a fantasy note of Lapsang Souchong, a spicy and smoky black tea that saturates the composition with a delicacy, as if weaving itself through a dimly lit room. The smoke here is lucid and vibrant, languorous and radiating. An altogether different sort of comfort. Similarly, Tabacco Toscano (Santa Maria Novella) is textured like velvet, and is inspired by Tuscan cigars. Tobacco is purged of its raspy qualities, in favour of sweet malt and smooth vanilla notes. Leather and guaiac wood offer subtle contrast, but remains at all times a most elegant and soft interpretation of the tobacco note.
Indeed, there is no chance of misplacing the fantasy of smoking rooms and cigar humidors attached to tobacco leaf and smoke. The brazen Jasmin et Cigarette by Etat Libre d’Orange shocks with the initial forwardness of its name – only to reveal a gorgeous harmonisation between pure white jasmine flower and the ashy trails of tobacco, coating the flower in a background puff of smoke, emphasising its pristine purity. Jasmin et Cigarette reminds us that tobacco too is a floral note, and its fruity nuances are picked up with apricot, tying the two notes together. Or du Serail (Naomi Goodsir) on the other hand offers a fantasy of hookah pipe smoke – hypnotic clouds of sticky golden fruits warmed to an oozing state, complete with flecks of cocoa and cedar. The composition is greedy and decadent: folds of tobacco leaf house notes of apple, orange, pineapple, coconut, and mango. The scent is alive and precise.
Finally, escape to Havana with Cuba by Czech and Speake: a metonym for Latin rhythms, Cohiba cigars, and sprightly cocktails full of rum and lime. Cuba leans on a central tobacco note which becomes a dark and smouldering base that contrasts a heady spicy top, nuanced with animalic, humid, and vegetal tones. Cuba takes the classic impression of bay leaf mixed with clove, evoking the tangy sharpness of bay rum, splicing this with the cool and shiny sharpness of mint and lime. Dirty, fresh, and sizzling, Cuba is a gorgeous presentation to the senses.
