Spring scent experiment

In my former blog post, the Zeta review, I mentioned that Zeta influenced me to do stuff I normally don't do. While wearing Zeta I kept thinking about different spring scents and I just got this enormous urge to create a spring scent of my own.

My first thought where to start was getting lilacs. There is plenty of them here and they are in bloom right now. So I packed my daughter into her pram and went out in search of them. But the ones I saw were all very obviously growing in some ones garden or in a pot on some ones balcony. I just couldn't bring myself to snatch some sprigs.

However, what I did find, growing freely, was my old pal, the rowan. I tried eating it in my Spring scent safari 2 blog post and was surprised that it tasted not very sour or bitter, but more like nougat. There were lots of rowans in full bloom near my house, so I promptly picked a big bunch of flowers to take home.

Now, rowan blossoms do not have a very pleasant smell. I think they cater more towards insects than people. They smell smokey, fishy and a little bit funky. Interesting, in other words. They might not make a great soliflore, but might help add character to something else.

In order to get as much scent out of the blossoms as possible I ran them in the blender to smash them up real good. I'm not sure if this was a great idea. In a matter of seconds the flowers started to oxidise and went from cauliflower white to brown. With fruits and wine oxidation damages taste so a note to self: No more flowers in the blender.

Then I needed a medium to carry the scent. I decided to split the blossoms into two jars containing two different mediums; rapseed oil and alcohol.  Now I suppose pure alcohol is better than a half used up bottle of Bacardi, but in the spur of the moment, this is what I could come up with digging through my cupboards. Note the label on the bottle of oil, it must be a sign ;)

So, this is what I've got so far. One jar of mashed rowan blossoms in oil and one in alcohol. Andy Tauer, I'm sure you have better things to do than reading this, but if you do, just so you know, you made me do this!

And, just to be clear, I don't have the slightest idea how you're supposed to extract scent from flowers. I'll read up on it eventually but for now, this is just a crazy little experiment. You got to start somewhere, right?