Getting to know civet as a fragrance note can make you gag. Put some costus roots under your nose one fine morn and you may skip breakfast. “Investigating” ginger, doing your ginger homework, is more pleasant: take a crisp ginger root and rub it between your fingers, bruise it with your fingernail, and inhale its lively and clean aroma (bite into the root for added credit); smell and taste yellow powdered ginger; slowly chew a piece of sticky, candied ginger; drink an old fashioned spicy ginger ale; and finally, eat a moist slice of warm gingerbread, straight from the oven, washed down with a ginger infusion, made using boiling water and sliced ginger root (sugar and milk optional). You are now ready to recognize ginger in fragrance.

Serge Lutens Five O'Clock Au Gingembre

In his Five O’Clock Au Gingembre Eau de Parfum, Serge Lutens places candied (not fresh) ginger in a tea-time setting and surrounds it with foody notes…

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