Aedes de Venustas Copal Azur

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Kafkaesque

A beach on the Yucatan Peninsula. Source: wexas.com

Copal Azur comes with the promise of all the colours of the Mayan Riviera, captured in one bottle: from the turquoise of its foaming seas to the green of its jungles, the white of its beaches and the plumes of Copal incense smoke, and the gold of fire-burning amber laid at the altars of the Jaguar God. Inspired by a Mayan citadel on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, it is a fragrance whose aroma is painted in the most beautiful strokes, conjuring up a truly vivid image that transports you visually and mentally. Yet, words can differ from actual reality, and what sounds so good as a verbal picture may not translate to the same thing in terms of scent. There are parts of Copal Azur that I found quite enjoyable, but other parts got lost in translation. Or, to be more precise, it may have been better had they not been translated at all.

Source: Now Smell This.

Copal Azur is an eau de parfum that was created by Bertrand Duchaufour, and released on November 15th. Whomever wrote the Aedes de Venustas’ press release did a magnificent job, if only in describing the beauty of the Yucatan Peninsula and its feel. You can read the full details on the Aedes website, but I’ll cover a few of the points here. First, the company explains that Copal Azur tries to capture the scent of a Mayan incense called Copal, but that the resin “cannot be used as a perfume ingredient.” As a result, “three different extractions of frankincense are used to conjure it from top to base notes, making up an extravagant 30% of the formula.” Continue reading →

Aftelier Perfumes: Cooking with Fragrant Essences (Part II)

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Kafkaesque

In Part I of this series, I talked about Mandy Aftel‘s Chef Essences, and focused on the Ginger, Basil, Blood Orange, Rose Absolute and Pear. Now, I’d like to look at six more: Pink Pepper, Cepes (Porcini Mushrooms), Cognac, Coriander Leaf (Cilantro), Tarragon, and Chocolate, before ending on a personal note about why I think these Chef Essences are so significant.

PINK PEPPER:

Source: worldflavorz.com

According to the Aftelier website, the Pink Pepper Essential Spray is composed of berries from Kenya and its aroma is described as “fresh wood and warm-peppery.” I found its spiciness to be piquant, fruity, and a bit tart as well. It also made me realise something: I do not like pink peppercorns. I’ve always had issues with its fruity, gooey, jammy aroma in perfume, but I never really thought about how I avoid cooking with them, or how I actually pick out the pink peppercorns in any pepper mix. (Same with the green ones, actually.) I will put up with the lightest, barest sprinkling, but not much more. Which is why the intensity of the Aftelier Chef Essence came as a little bit of a shock to my system.

It is just like the real berries, with layers of nuance and, yes, the woodiness mentioned on the Aftelier website. I’d previously been told by a few people that the Black Pepper Chef Essence was astonishingly good on ice-cream, so I thought that the same thing would apply to the Pink Pepper one. To my surprise, it really was decent on vanilla ice-cream, though it took me a minute to wrap my head around the flavour combination. It’s certainly different, and captures your attention in the same way that sea salt does on things like cookies, chocolate, or other seemingly inapposite items. Continue reading →

Aftelier Perfumes: Cooking with Fragrant Essences (Part I)

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Noma restaurant, Copenhagen. Source: www.tiboo.cn

If you’re a foodie, there may come a time when you experience something whose flavour is so remarkable that words fail you, hyperbole becomes actual reality, and taste feels like a revelation. That is what happened to me the first time I tried one of Mandy Aftel‘s Chef’s Essences. My eyes grew wide, words didn’t come out in full sentences, and I felt a mixture of awe and disbelief. I know it sounds like an exaggeration but it’s not, and I mean it with absolute sincerity. Some of Mandy Aftel’s Chef’s Essences rocked my (food) world, and I think they’re pure genius. I’m not the only one. Ms. Aftel’s creations are used in the White House, as well as some of the top restaurants in the world.

The Collection is an extensive one, with 15 essential sprays and over 50 essential oils, ranging from basic items like Black Pepper and Cinnamon to funky things like Peru Balsam, Frankincense, Fir Needles, Ylang-Ylang, Magnolia, and Violets. I’ve tried 11 of them now and wanted to share my experiences with you, covering what exactly they are, why they are a remarkable invention, how you can use them, and some of my adventures (or misadventures in a few cases). The ones I’ve tested are: Rose, Ginger, Blood Orange, Pear, Cognac, Cepes (Porcini Mushrooms), Chocolate, Tarragon, Sweet Basil, Coriander Leaf (Cilantro), and Pink Pepper. Today, I’ll start with a background explanation and introduction, then focus on 5 of the Essences: the Ginger, Sweet Basil, Rose Absolute, Blood Orange, and Pear. The remainder will be covered in Part II.

Just a few of the Chef Essence oil bottles and two of the Chef Essence sprays. Photo and source: Aftelier.com

Continue reading →

Checking In & Some Changes

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Hello everyone. I know it’s been a few weeks, but I had some personal matters to attend to. I hope to be back soon with regular reviews, though there will be some changes to how I do things in the future. One of my goals is to have some of my reviews be shorter, less detailed, and a bit more of an overview in nature. Not all of them, but enough to ease my reviewing schedule and to make things a little simpler for me.

I will also substantially cut down the number of retail links that I provide at the end of each review, particularly for Europe. Up to now, many reviews have had between 20 to 30 direct links to a specific perfume’s purchase page. For the U.K. alone, I would cover all the major department stores, as well as the niche ones. Then, there would be links to stores in numerous other countries, including the Middle East when applicable, as well as extensive discount information for some brands. All of that will change. I will provide one or two retail links for America, and a handful for Europe, limited primarily to the major sites, especially those who ship world-wide. I realise the section will not be quite as helpful as before for a few of you, but I suspect many people skipped it entirely anyway. What most people don’t realise is that it would often take me at least two hours, if not more, to find and input all that information, not to mention fixing the formatting problems that frequently ensued. Two to three hours is a lot to spend each time on a mere purchasing section that isn’t a core part of the review and isn’t used or necessarily appreciated by every reader.

When I started the blog, I would frequently post six reviews a week. Given the growing length of the posts, the retail links, the time to find the photos and more, that number dropped to about four. It may drop further still. I’ve written 517 posts in just under two years, and I’d estimate that at least 450 of those have been reviews, many of which exceed 3,000 words in length. It’s obviously quite a lot, on all counts. Continue reading →