Cumberland Tea

Working the dilution for the new natural tea scent left me a bit unhappy with the composition. Which is why I do like to test things out at various stages, not to mention moods, the weather and any number of things which can make a difference in how a scent is perceived. My initial idea for the tea scent was to create something similar to the sweet tea that I drank as a child. Southern sweet tea is a brewed loose leaf orange pekoe tea that is cooled and then strained into a tea pitcher where additional water, and a hefty dose of sugar is added, with fresh sliced lemon on the side. Everything about real sweet tea is fresh. It has a wonderful full tea flavor. The sweetness is offset somewhat by the lemon, depending on how much is used. Sweet tea is also a traditional mixer for bourbon, adding both lemon and mint. A popular alternative to a straight up Julep.

As I was contemplating this scent, I knew that I wanted to bring out the tea flavor, but also wanted to add spices, a warm sweet (but not too) base and richness that would translate to a perfume. Two distinct memories of early tea drinking were of my grandmothers tea and the tea that they served at the Cumberland Lodge. I remember going there with my parents. They met their friends for food, and conversation, and I was always excited to be with the grown ups. I was very young, probably no more than five or six, if that. And everything seemed bigger than life. Especially those giant glasses of tea. I still make sweet tea in the summer. I make it exactly the way that my grandmother made it, and it tastes wonderful. With or without the spike.

This new scent contains several tea notes, including Mate’ Absolute, Green Tea CO2, Chai (organic tincture) Sencha (organic tincture) and Black Tea (organic tincture). Instead of lemon I used Ruby Red Grapefruit and Orange Juice E.O.’s for the opening, and grounded it in amber. There are a lot of other notes, but for the most part I was trying to achieve the essence of sweet tea, wrapped in a complex bouquet of surrounding notes. I wasn’t happy with the straight alcohol carrier, so I instead revised the trials using a 50/50 combo of the tinctured Chai and Sencha for the carrier. This is how most of my natural parfums are made. I rarely if ever use straight alcohol for the carrier. This also makes it possible to have distinct fruity notes in a natural perfume. By tincturing dried organic fruits (and other things) I have a wide variety of natural materials to choose from that are not available as an essential oil or absolute. It also broadens my natural palette by around seventy notes. Most of which are unique to my lab. Perhaps an ubiquitous fruity floral at some point – nah…

Anyhooo, as much as I branch out in other areas, I still for the most part stick pretty close to my roots. And as I have said before it’s all about the art. The Chase, and the Art. Art-Chase, Chase-Art… You get the idea.

Peace, & Blessings ZZ……….