Tea just has to be one of the most comfortable and versatile scent notes around. It can be light and dainty, perfect with crustless cucumber sandwiches. Green tea goes from tasting like lightly toasted rice towards tasting like whole bales of hay, begging for something intensly sweet to cut through the astringency. And there is smoky tea, black tea, spicy tea, the list goes on and on. And, weirdly enough, most of them can, at some point, be detected while wearing Tea for Two.
First thing that happens when applying is a huge blast of smoky Lapsang Souchong. It's very intense and smoky but somewhere behind that smoke one can detect a balancing gormand note. To me it smells like biscuits. Dry, not very sweet, but with a smattering of vanilla added for flavour.
After an hour the smoke has faded and now we're having a very robust green tea. It tastes strongly of hay and unlit tobacco. The gormand note has also evolved, it's still sweet but it's also spicier now. Mabye there is gingerbread served with the tea?
Fast forward two more hours and most of the hay is gone. Now I get more of a regular, good quality black tea. It's served hot and a teaspoon of honey has slowly melted and been stirred into the cup.
At the extreme drydown all the tea and spices seem to meld together, forming a cup of nice, sweet Indian chai. The perfect warm, comfy ending of an intense day
I percieve Tea for Two more as a olfactorian recording of a series of nice moments than a classical perfume. It's amazing how it manages to morph from one cup of tea to the next. The notes seem to swirl one around the other and I'm very intrigued how the sweetness first seem belong to the gourmand half of the scent, then in the tea. Same with the spices, first they go with the cake but thy end up in the chai. And its's not just an "interesting" scent, it smells very good indeed. I love it on cold winter days when you'd rather stay cuddled up under a blanket. And it's even better on days that I've anticipated as going to be rather bad. It's like carrying around a warm cuddly teddy bear, nudging you through any challenges out there that you'd rather not have known anything about.
Official notes from l'Artisan: ginger, smoked tea, honey
Notes from Fragrantica:
Top: bergamot, star anise, tea
Heart: cinnamon, ginger, spices
Base: honey, vanilla
Created by Olivia Giacobetti
Foto: http://old-photos.blogspot.com
Interesting, Sigrun. The next time I wear Tea for Two, I'll look for the various forms of tea within it. You're so right about it not being a classical perfume, but more of "an olfactorian recording of a series of nice moments." For me, this is a scent that is both cozy and sexy at the same time ... the way the smoky aspect of it wraps around the sweeter notes makes it feel a bit dark and intimate, as well as cuddly. Mmm, good!
ReplyDeleteYes, I also really like the contrast between the smoke and the sweeter, more home-like, notes. So much that I've gotten a full bottle of it! It's on sale right now, along some other goodies, on the European l'Artisan site (http://www.artisanparfumeur.com/sale/sale/ ) for 47 Euros/100 ml :)
ReplyDeleteI like tea notes as well. Thanks for sharing about the different tea notes in Tea for Two. It's not one of my very favorite tea scents, but it's such a commonly cited one that I feel I should be more familiar with it. And now I'll have your post to use as a guide!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's one of those scents that pop up all around. Which ones are your favourite tea scents? I can only remember trying 2 others, Russian Caravan Tea by CB I Hate Perfume and Olang Infini by Atelier Colognes. Both are great but none of them has that smoke/gormand combo of Tea for Two.
ReplyDeleteWhen I tried Tea for Two for the first time my immediate thought was: it's too much... And a couple of months later I bought a full bottle. I enjoy wearing this perfume, especially in cold weather.
ReplyDeleteTwo more tea scents: in Jo Malone's line (last year's limited editions) - Assam & Grapefruit and Earl Grey & Cucumber.
I haven't tried any of the Jo Malones tea scents but they sound like potential winners. It's a pity we don't get Jo Malone here, I'd love to have a sniff.
ReplyDelete