Valentine’s Day is February 14th, of course, and you may be thinking of giving a small gift or two to a special someone. I don’t mean only romantic partners, either; I think that certain friends and family members deserve a little extra display of affection once in while, too. Here, then, are ten scented treats for all sorts of Valentines, each priced under $30.
Sweets to the sweet: the ever-popular Philosophy has assembled a limited edition X’s and O’s Trio just for Valentine’s Day…
Day number two of my Father’s Day gift ideas post focuses on fatherly types personified by the likes of Ward Cleaver, Rick Steves, and J.I. Rodale.
Fathers who still insist on safety razors and shave creams might appreciate the Edwin Jagger Shaving Cream Gift Set ($55) at Luckyscent; the boxed set contains the Edwin Jagger DE89L chrome-lined razor, a 75 ml tube of Edwin Jagger natural shaving cream, two sample sizes of shave creams, and five Derby Safety Razor Blades. Choose between Aloe Vera or Sandalwood shave cream formulas. Another good shave cream at Luckyscent is Crema da Barba Almond Shaving Cream ($10/150g).
Carbon 2 Cobalt black coffee soap is not “prissy” ($8/5 oz bar) and the Gents Shave Kit is also “macho;” it includes a 4.5 oz shaving soap (in a glass tumbler) made with Rhassoul clay and Sierra Nevada Stout Beer, a 5 oz spiced rum body soap, a 1 oz bay rum aftershave, and a pure badger hair shaving brush…
Much of the money that I don’t spend on perfume goes to other household staples, like tea and chocolate. I have “collections” of both that rival my perfume collection in terms of profligacy, but I don’t feel guilty because I do manage to use them all up before they go bad. I wish I could say the same of the perfume.
Today, reviews of two oolong1 teas from from indie natural perfume house Aftelier, and very brief descriptions of two floral chocolates from the British brand Rococo.
This is a lovely flavored Tie Quan Yin oolong. It’s lightly oxidized but with a warm finish, accented with rose (quite noticeable, mostly in the aftertaste) and ginger (subtle but adds a nice kick). If you’re not used to floral scented teas (or foods), it might, at first, seem like drinking perfume, but you’ll get used to it quickly, and if you’ve ever had jasmine tea it will not seem so unusual.
Rose Ginger is reminiscent of one of my favorite Mariage Frères teas, Lune Rouge, but made with a much higher quality tea, and it quickly became one of my favorite scented oolongs of all time.2 It smells fabulous, with just the slightest hint of smoke…
The brand ethos over at Jo Malone strikes me as decidedly mainstream and (very) British; they’ve made a virtue out of simplicity by emphasizing the layering — or fragrance combining, as they prefer to phrase it — possibilities of their relatively linear, usually clean and often sheer scents. Here and there, they’ve ventured out into the exotic (did anyone try the Cologne Intense collection? I’ve seen nary a word), but with the new unisex Tea collection, they’re back on familiar ground both for them (what could be more British and straightforward than tea?) and for us (tea fragrances not being exactly thin on the ground).
Assam & Grapefruit is my early favorite of the five. I say early because it’s the only one I’ve put on skin more than once, but short of a miracle, nothing is going to topple it from the top of the heap; Sweet Milk would make an agreeable layering agent if you didn’t already have something like Demeter Condensed Milk, but the other three (Fresh Mint Leaf, Sweet Lemon, Earl Grey & Cucumber) failed to move me…
After my August sorbet adventures I wanted to learn more about tea. I decided to start at the Tea Embassy. It’s my favorite kind of shop — small, specialized, and run by people fiercely devoted to their product. From the street the Embassy’s historical bungalow looks like a place ladies in hats might gather for an afternoon of vicious gossip and Earl Grey, but inside there’s dark wood and a wall full of silver canisters. (Tea, like wine and perfume, should be stored away from light, heat and humidity.) The Embassy’s excellent website — which includes an online shop — promised a “palate profile” to help me select my perfect tea from among the 200 they offer.
When I arrived, the natty young man behind the counter introduced himself as Tim. “We’re still working on a formal version of the profile,” he said, “but let me ask you a few questions.”
We talked for the next two-and-half hours. Some of the questions he asked me were about flavor, but many were about mood and context, or just the kind of person I was. Did I like to wake up gently, or with a jolt of energy? When my friends came to town, where did I take them out to dinner?
To pick the right tea, I had to think about what I wanted the tea to do and when I was going to drink it. That made sense to me — I pick the perfumes I’m going to wear much the same way — and it made me remember how bound up in ceremony and ritual tea is, even the simplest ritual of waiting for water to boil and leaves to steep.
As we talked, we sniffed. I skipped all the scented/flavored teas and stuck to representative green, black, oolong, and white tea. My goal was to learn about the variety of flavors in the leaf itself…