Andy explores toasted notes and green tea.

When I cook, I am always amazed at how some of the most harmonious flavor combinations arise by fusing seemingly incompatible ingredients. Strawberries and balsamic vinegar, blue cheese and honey, mangoes and cayenne pepper—all of these flavorful groupings work surprisingly well together. In perfumery, classical genres like chypre and fougère juxtapose fresh notes of citrus or herbs with rich woods, moss, and amber to create an exciting fragrant impression. Even in tea, where olfactory and gustatory pleasures meet, harmonious contrasts make for some of the most interesting and popular teas. Such is the case with Genmaicha, a Japanese green tea that blends the savory aroma of toasted brown rice with the freshness and delicacy of Sencha.

When you first open up a package of Genmaicha, the incredible fragrance immediately hits you. The scent of Genmaicha combines grassy sweetness with toasty richness, a cue to the exquisite flavor of the tea, as well as the unique ingredients. Unlike most teas, Genmaicha consists of a steamed green tea (usually Sencha, an early harvest green tea, or Bancha, a lower grade, later harvest tea) combined with kernels of toasted brown rice. Oftentimes, some of these kernels pop during roasting, resulting in pieces that look like popcorn mixed into your tea.

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” ‘Eau Sauvage was a real chef d’oeuvre in its original form,’ retired perfume-maker Pierre Bourdon, who created Dior’s Dolce Vita and Yves Saint Laurent’s Kouros, said of the 1966 scent. ‘It used to be very green and fresh. Today, it has been replaced by something softer and duller,’ ” from EU threat spotlights perfume makers’ secrets.

All my life I’ve been hearing that things used to be better in the past. Paris used to be more exciting, Rome cleaner, New York cheaper. When I began exploring the world of perfumery on a professional level, I was told by many older colleagues that the golden age of fragrance had passed. Talk about curbing one’s enthusiasm! Despite these warnings, I persisted with my perfumery training.

But you need not be inordinately nostalgic to realize that many perfumes used to be better before many classical materials were banned or restricted and before fragrance companies started reformulating en masse. There is something fascinating about the delicate and precise balance of essences. Even the smallest changes can have dramatic consequences. Imagine what happens when a perfumer is told to remove whole building blocks of a composition or to make a chypre (a mossy perfume type) without moss.

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I am looking for a contributing author to join Bois de Jasmin’s small team of writers. The right person should be passionate about perfume and interested in trying different fragrances. Ideally, I’m looking for someone who can contribute 2 articles a month, but it’s flexible. The articles can be perfume reviews or any other fragrance-related posts, and you can draw upon your own personal interests and experience. Besides contributing a post, an author is expected to reply to the comments under their articles (I take care of the images and formatting myself).

You should be comfortable with being edited.

You will be compensated for your work (because Bois de Jasmin is not a sponsored blog, the payment is modest). The written material has to be original, so articles published elsewhere won’t be accepted. Bois de Jasmin will hold the copyright on any articles published here.

To prevent any conflict of interest situations, please don’t apply if you work for a fragrance company, retail store or blog on perfume topics. If you’re a fellow perfume blogger, you’re welcome to participate as a guest poster.

Please note that no sponsored or advertising driven articles are accepted.

To apply: please send me a short writing sample (3 paragraphs or so) pasted in the email body and tell me a little about yourself and your interest in perfume. My email address is editor at boisdejasmin dot com.

I will try to reply to each submission individually, but please give me a couple of weeks to do so. Thank you for your interest!

Painting: A Lady Writing a Letter (fragment), Johannes Vermeer, 17th century Netherlands, National Gallery of Art.

New York perfume boutique Aedes de Venustas is releasing another fragrance on June 1st, 2013, following the launch of Aedes de Venustas Signature EDP. Iris Nazarena was created in collaboration between co-owners Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner and perfumer Ralf Schwieger (the creator of Frédéric Malle Lipstick Rose, Hermès Eau des Merveilles, Etat Libre d’Orange Fils de Dieu, and Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine). The fragrance  is described as an incense layered iris, and it was inspired by the rare Iris Bismarckiana (also known as Iris Nazarena), which grows mainly in the mountains east of Nazareth.

“The suede-soft petals of the mystical muse are sketched in a subtle sfumato of brown, purple and white, brushed with powdery iridescence. The limpid ambrette, with its pear, rose and musk facets, sheds the tender light of dawn on the top notes. Rose adds a touch of floral sensuality, while the aromatic, resinous juniper berry introduces the incense theme. The cool, vivid green of star anise conjures the stylized stems and leaves of the flower. Patchouli and vetiver allude to its roots, driven into dark earth and rock. The sacred smoke rising from the altars weaves its mineral, leather-scented tendrils throughout the development with incense, clove and oud.”

Iris Nazarena Eau de Parfum will be available June 1st, 2013 at Aedes de Venustas, www.aedes.com and Barneys New York. 3.4oz/$245 Via press release

A Russian friend told me that when she first moved to Sicily twenty years ago she couldn’t get used to the overabundance of oranges. Back in Moscow you had to queue for hours to get a box of precious Jaffa oranges but the sidewalks in the villages around Palermo were covered with fallen fruit. Or in what seemed to be a case of utter decadence, people would use oranges to polish copper. “Imagine cleaning your dirty pots with oranges!”

I think of this story whenever I cook with oranges or try an orange based fragrance. I imagine myself eyeing in dismay the piles of orange opulence–wasted, unwanted!–and stopping to stuff yet another orange into my purse. Even though oranges for me are not a rare luxury, I find their vibrant color and exuberant taste irresistible. My kitchen is never without at least one orange, and there is often a small bottle of Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine (Blood Orange) in my purse.

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