In Your Opinion: 314 posts

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating!

The combination of rose and black tea is gorgeous–the honeyed, citrusy note of rosewater complements the gentle smokiness of black tea well and brings out its roasted chestnut accents. Andy has previously shared his recipe for “the morning of roses” tea and I mentioned how I transform tea into a cup of Shalimar. However, using rosewater in green tea hasn’t occurred to me previously, since green teas are quite delicate and it didn’t seem to me that rose would fit well with the seaweed and spinach notes of the unfermented green blends I usually drink.

Oolong tea, on other hand, suits roses well. Oolong undergoes fermentation, the length of which varies depending on the tea grower, but in most cases, fermentation releases the floral notes of tea leaves. This is the reason osmanthus and jasmine suit oolongs perfectly–the marriage of flavors is harmonious.

Adding rosewater is not the same as letting the petals perfume the leaves, but it works well enough. Start with a couple of drops of rosewater added directly into the brewed tea and adjust the quantity to your taste. Savor the fragrant vapor rising above the cup. Enjoy the slow valse of flavors. A cup of tea is a moment to put the world on pause and carve out time for yourself. Make it as enjoyable as possible.

If you have your favorite teas or tea combinations, please share. 

Scent Diary is a place to write your observations about the scents around you. Whether you write down 1 recollection or 10 matters less than simply reminding yourself to smell. You can add as many comments as you wish. You can comment today or over the course of the week; this thread will always be open. Of course, do share what perfume you’re wearing or what particularly good scented products you’ve discovered.

While looking through my articles, I found this article that I wrote a few years ago but that still remains popular and often-read: A to Z Tips for Enjoyable, Affordable and Rewarding Perfume Hobby. If you have any tips to add, I’d love to hear them.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing!

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

The colors of Kateryna Bilokur (1900-1961). Born into a peasant family, she learned painting on her own. Her family thought that she brought shame on them by refusing to be “a normal woman”—marry and have children. The Soviet government wanted to showcase that even peasants on Soviet collective farms can do such incredible things, so Bilokur was denied education she sought and a transfer to Kyiv. In 1954, her paintings were praised by Pablo Picasso when he saw them at the international exhibition in Paris. But that praise didn’t materialize into anything significant for Bilokur. She died in poor health a few years later.

Look at these rich colors and the splendor of these flowers. Imagine a place where all flowers bloom at the same time.

Scent Diary is a place to write your observations about the scents around you. Whether you write down 1 recollection or 10 matters less than simply reminding yourself to smell. You can add as many comments as you wish. You can comment today or over the course of the week; this thread will always be open. Of course, do share what perfume you’re wearing or what particularly good scented products you’ve discovered.

While looking through my articles, I found this article that I wrote a few years ago but that still remains popular and often-read: A to Z Tips for Enjoyable, Affordable and Rewarding Perfume Hobby. If you have any tips to add, I’d love to hear them.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing!

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

What a beautiful fragrance do sweet peas have! Until I grew these flowers in my garden, I didn’t realize the full dimensions of their scent. In perfumery, a sweet pea accord is a common one in vintage-style fragrances, but I never enjoyed its cloying powderiness. Real sweet peas have a powdery scent, but this makeup-like note is uplifted by rose, pear and violet accents. Are you familiar with this fragrance? Do you have perfumes that resemble it?

For those curious to grow sweet peas themselves, I can tell you that they are not too capricious. They sprouted easily, but it took a few warm weeks for the plants to shot up and take over their corner of the flower bed. I bought a mix of different colors and it was a surprise to discover the hues of the blossoms as they opened up–magenta, purple, lilac, white, peach.

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