New Haarlem

My knowledge of Bond No. 9 is not super extensive. In fact, the only reason I added this one to my "buy list" was because it got talked about pretty regularly by fragrance influencers on YT, and it was described as "smelling like breakfast" which caught my attention. What held me back from purchasing it was the price; I was reluctant to spend that much money blind buying a fragrance from a house I had no experience with. However, when I saw a full bottle come up for sale for under $150 I took that as a sign to take the plunge. Here's how it went; Scent: Opening is sweet, green, and aromatic. The primary notes I get off the top are green leaves, lavender, vanilla, and coffee. The strongest of the notes are the vanilla and green leaves. The vanilla note is very sweet in a syrupy kind of way. The green leaf note is very, as you would imagine, green. It's a stark and quite jarring contrast to the heavy sweetness, but somehow still works. This is followed by the lavender and coffee. The coffee is not what one would typically expect when they think of coffee notes. It isn't like a cup of brewed coffee, I would describe it more like the aroma of opening a fresh bag of unground, roasted coffee beans. The experience continues as the coffee note blends nicely with the vanilla to form an accord that is very reminiscent of maple syrup. The lavender note hangs out in the background to provide a subtle and familiar aromatic touch. It's worth noting that right after spraying it on there's a strong pop of the green leaves note, but it dissipates into the background within 5 minutes. Dry down is sweet, spicy, and warm. The primary notes I get are vanilla, coffee, tonka, and amber. The strongest of the notes are the coffee and vanilla for that same syrupy sweet accord. This is followed by the tonka for extra powdery sweetness, and the amber for even more warm, resinous sweetness. There's a bit of woodiness from cedar in the background along with the faintest hint of the green leaves and lavender from the opening. In the dry down it really does smell like a stack of syrupy french toast with a cup of coffee on the side; people aren't lying when they say it smells like breakfast. This fragrance is ultra-gourmand. Performance: Initial projection is strong and can reach well outside of arms length. Sillage is strong as well with an easily noticeable scent trail. After a few hours the projection and sillage were unchanged; still strong and easily noticeable. At the 8 hour mark the projection and sillage were still unchanged; strong and easily noticeable. This fragrance didn't become a skin scent until after the 12 hour mark, making it certified eternal on my skin. When to wear: This is a fall/winter fragrance most suited for evening wear. It would be too much to wear to the office, but would work great for a date night. Blind buy: If you like sweet gourmand scents, or the idea of smelling like breakfast appeals to you, this is a safe blind buy. Final verdict: My friends, we have a perfect score. This fragrance hits all the targets; powerful performance, intoxicating scent profile, and a positive attention magnet. The only negative thing I can say about this fragrance is that it isn't super versatile, and I can only think of a few occasions where I would wear this. But man would it be a showstopper in those scenarios. Either way, I think anyone that enjoys sweet gourmand scents owes it to themselves to at least try this one. Sure it's expensive, but it's definitely worth it. Who knows, you may just fall in love with it like I did. Scent: 10/10 Longevity: 10/10 Sillage: 10/10

This is such a sexy mature syrupy scent...with no syrup or maple sap note in it. but i still smell it. Syrup you put on pancakes type of a scent. Tasty, in fact it made me go & order pancakes at my local diner before work. God this thing smell delicious. Must buy, if you love gourmand fragrances. I was on the lirr, heading to work after finishing my meal at the diner. And someone said out loud what the fuck smells so sweet? At first i thought it was"shit did i spray too much on", and then it was followed by.... now i want pancakes or a cinnamon roll. I started laughing after that comment. She & her friends sat across from me and said "it's a lot stronger now"...they're looking around and finally asked do i smell anything. I said you're smelling me... we spoke about the fragrance and random stuff afterwards till we hit Penn Station. Not bad bond no.9, not bad at all. With all honesty this fragrance makes an excellent wingman...This frag will be in my favorites from now on. I used six sprays...both wrist, back & front of my neck, chest and front of my shirt. Will I buy this again?...YES!(If i can get it at 90 again or lower). Does this fragrance enter BEAST MODE, good, just okay or weak sauce at best? Beast mode in Sillage & projection! What's the strength of this? EDP. Am i willing to trade this fragrance? No. Should You Skipped It, Sample It First or Blind Buy It? Blind Buy worthy, if you love gourmands and like syrup like scents this is a must for you! For everyone else, sample first. Can you use it as a unisex scent? Yes. Is it the old, new formulation? Current. What's its availability; in production, limited edition or discontinued? In production. SKU Number: 888874000896 Batch Number: 2855 (Production Date: Unknown) Age: 25+ From: Let It Go (Someone didn't want it and bought it off them) Size: 100 ML Scent: 5/5 (Amazing). Value: 3.5/5 (Cost $90.00). Sillage: 5/5 (Six feet easy). Longevity: 5/5 (Ten hours). Creativity: 5/5 (Tonka bean, amber, coffee & vanilla smell like maple syrup). Projection: 5/5 (Three hours plus maybe four hours, then a skin scent afterwards). Versatility: 5/5 (Fall, Winter & early spring time, anytime of the day). Compliments: 5/5 (I was told i smelled like hotcakes). Until next time, I'll catch you on the flipside.

I needed this beauty back in my life and after years of searching and waiting I finally found a 100 ml bottle for an acceptable price and could not be happier. It's a vintage bottle, I believe pre-2009. Somehow I'd forgotten JUST how smooth and yummy it is. Could be due to the bottle's age or the fact that I've aged since last owning a bottle, but the top notes aren't as colgne-y as I remember. It's irresistible and so attractive to me with its masculine edge. Because my bottle lost some of its top notes it gets to the yummy stuff a bit faster. I detect the lavender and something bright and juicy in the top. It's incredibly smooth, smoother than I remember. I will be buying a backup once it's re-released. It's my perfect winter fragrance. So people describe it as maple syrup and pancakes with coffee and lavender but I don't read it that way. To me it's cinnamon coffee cake served fresh out of the oven with brown sugar syrup on top combined with the aromatics of coffee and lavender @ a wooden table in a log cabin with a fire roaring in the other room. It's very warm, very gourmand. It's sweetness is offset by woods and patchouli. There's a a slight smokiness (fire in a log cabin, not sitting at a bonfire). Coffee Break and By the Fireplace evoke a similar FEELING in that one has coffee, lavender and vanilla, the other is warm and toasty like a literal fireside, but nothing else suffices as an alternative to this. New Haarlem IS the coffee, lavender, vanilla combo to end them all. As a woman in my thirties it's incredibly wearable, comforting and Delicious. A cold weather scent indeed. As for performance, it's beastly. No more than three sprays for me. I recently wore it to a family breakfast and felt a little self-conscious as I realized my two sprays applied two hours earlier were still up to my neck. I knew everyone could smell me and they probably weren't thinking, "mmm she smells like pancakes, how fitting!" Next time I'm in an intimate setting I'll stick with one spray to the back of my neck.

I purchased 5ml from a fellow Fragrantican. Thanks again Michael! WOW, this is the textbook definition of "gourmand". They should've called this one "Breakfast in Haarlem". I literally smell pancakes with syrup and a cup of coffee. It's interesting to me how the lavender just kind of comes & goes, keeping this from smelling too syrupy. I barely get cedar or patchouli, but there is an herbal essence to it that also keeps the sticky sweetness in check. A somewhat linear scent, it smelled fairly similar for hours. Longevity is good but I find sillage to be not so great, even in 88 degree weather. In fact I still noticed a faint trace of the sweetness when I woke up, some 20 hours later, but I had to crush my nose to my wrist to smell it. I probably should save the rest of my atomizer for Fall, because I've made the mistake of wearing Bond colognes out of season, and they are drastically different. Scent of Peace for example; if you wear it when it's cold, the brightness of the pineapple is largely subdued and the cedar comes off somewhat skunky to me. But in the Summer, SoP is a freakin beast. Not sure I would buy this one, as I don't find it versatile enough. This is merely something I'd wear around the house for my own enjoyment. I wouldn't even really know how to rate this, and I feel i shouldn't because I don't want to do this cologne a disservice, or be misleading. Bottom line: try it for yourself. I've tried like maybe 15 Bond scents, and this one isn't anything like the others, whereas many of the others might have some vague similarities, this one is off in left field eating pancakes with extra syrup.

Let's start with a bold statement... Bond No. 9’s New Haarlem is a fragrance that has secured its place in my top 10 Hall of Fame. Composed by the perfumer Maurice Roucel, whose other masterpieces include Musc Ravageur, L and Voyage (...), this 2003 creation is a standout in the gourmand genre. New Haarlem greets you with a unique blend of lavender, bergamot, and green leaves. But it’s the heart of the fragrance, where roasted coffee meets dry lavender, that creates what I like to call the “pancake effect”. This magical accord evokes the comforting aroma of a café on a crisp morning, yet it never veers into cloying sweetness. Instead, it maintains a refined, almost gentlemanly character that sets it apart from more juvenile gourmands. The base of amber, vanilla, tonka bean, and cedarwood adds warmth and depth, allowing the fragrance to evolve over time. Performance is solid, with longevity in the 8–10 hour range and a projection that creates a pleasant scent bubble for the first 3–4 hours. What truly surprised me in New Haarlem is its versatility. Despite its gourmand nature, it could be worn year-round and suits virtually any occasion... from office settings to dates. Where most of the contemporary gourmands are vanillic sweetbombs, New Haarlem remains a strong staple since 2003. After all, it's been around for more than 20 years and luckily it reappeared after being discontinued by Bond No 9.

Finally reviewing this on a day off following the Eagles Super Bowl victory, Bond No. 9 New Haarlem, for me, epitomizes the sweet brunch vibe, with heavy notes of coffee, amber, and vanilla comprising much of my experience of it. Certainly the wildcard note, if it can be called that, is lavender, which mixes peculiarly with the coffee to give the fragrance a rather mysterious yet sophisticated edge, as in Armani Attitude, wherein both notes are even more front-and-center without the gourmand influence of vanilla. Cedar further rounds out the mix, with tonka providing its creamy yet slightly powdery nuances. Overall, the experience of the fragrance is nearly a full gourmand, the lavender providing the sole vestige of something outside simply eating coffee and pancakes, and New Haarlem is all the more brilliant a composition for involving the lavender, which really is the keystone of the whole fragrance. Next to Andy Warhol, New Haarlem is the most powerful Bond No. 9 fragrance I've tried to date, with excellent projection and longevity, just as loud as I want it to be for how much I love it. The only downside is its peculiarity, that someone averse to coffee or sweet scents will likely not be attracted to it, but as I love both, I'm smitten with it, and I wear it occasionally for a nice breakfast or brunch occasion. 9 out of 10

New Haarlem is such a simple yet beautiful fragrance - not everything needs to be complicated to be wholly loved. It does remind me of Rochas Man (I have the vintage juice) and Michael Jordan Legend, but a richer and more quality rendition of those two. It also helps that this was a gift from a wonderful friend - I miss her so... Anyways, it starts with a thick burst of rich, freshly roasted coffee and a touch of herbaceous lavender. I don't sense the lavender much after the first few minutes but I suspect it plays a supporting role, as do all the other notes, to the coffee. There is definitely some creamy vanilla and something very reminiscent of maple syrup - from a distance this smells like coffee and maple syrup, hence all of the breakfast associations. The scent remains relatively linear with a rotating of creamy amber/vanilla and coffee throughout, but there is also a very clear nuttiness that most don't mention. At certain times, I sense a very real hazelnut note that persists throughout the drydown - it is very pleasing and ultimately sets it apart from the smell alikes. I enjoyed every minute of this fume and it definitely works all genders....simply delectable! I hope you all have a relaxing day and snuggle up with your favorite fume! Day 28 - A moment to relax Listening to: SVIIB - Reappear

I had the pleasure of sniffing this at Bloomingdale's and it remained on my mind until I finally bought a full bottle a few weeks ago. This is the creamiest lavender coffee fragrance I've ever smelled. It's such a cozy scent that I predominately wear this at home as it's very calming while still being addicting. This does sit closer to the skin about 15-20 mins after spraying which saddens me a bit but I do not mind since the profile is beautiful and makes me feel calm and relaxed. It's just such a creamy soft fragrance I continually sniff my arm or cardigan to keep taking it in. The vanilla is what brings out the creaminess that I adore. At first spray, you may get cologne vibes but that will quickly dissipate as it mellows onto your skin. The lavender is the star of the show while the coffee note is the background dancer at least for my skin chemistry. I was scared of the lavender note since it is usually a note mostly used in men's cologne/fragrances -- but I'm glad I got to test it first as it's so beautiful. I can see this being worn by either gender thanks to the ingredient list and the scent profile. I highly recommend sampling higher-priced fragrances since you are unable to return them. This one is a cozy delight to my nose. Ten out of ten spa day ritual scent.

One simple word to describe this scent: "delicious!"🤤 The opening for me is literally like a fancy syrup, but once it settles the pancakes and coffee aroma start to come in and man, I totally understand the hype that New Haarlem gets. This literally makes me crave the very thing it smells like, and no other scent that I know has ever done that lol. But the sweetness is tempered by the lavender and this never gets cloying or overly sweet. You still smell like breakfast but somehow it just works here as a fragrance? This also has a very natural and realistic smell to it, nothing synthetic and both the ingridents and blending are high quality. It literally makes me think of a plate of pancakes with black coffee on a frigid cold morning which would be the absolute best time to wear it for me, but I could see this working just as well on cold nights Just.a beautiful gourmand scent which will get you noticed. Now I do have a pet peeve with this which is the atomizer. As beautiful as the overall presentation is, this thing is a joke because it shoots a stream instead of actually spraying a mist, like seriously? C'mon Bond, upgrade your atomizers! But otherwise New Haarlem is a gem and I’m very happy to have this in my collection 🥞 ☕️ 😍

Even though I couldn't really pick up on the coffee note, which is normally a pet peeve of mine, I thoroughly enjoyed wearing this. At first spray, it's bright lavender with syrupy amber—fresh, floral and sweet. I don't like classifying perfumes as such but it reads very masculine, soft but strong. It remained this way for the first few hours. There was some warm spice that emerged around the second or third hour that may have been supposed to be the coffee but I couldn't specifically distinguish it as coffee. A bit of the bergamot also comes out around this time. The latter half of the wear is greener, slightly aromatic and woodsier. There's still some lavender and sweetness, but they are both softer, and now the cedar and patchouli start to shine. Around hour number five, the vanilla comes out, adding to the sweetness that the amber left behind and the bergamot fades. By hour eight, all I pick up on is the cedar, tonka and vanilla—no more lavender or patchouli. This lasted on me for a little over nine hours. Overall, I really love this scent. It's both gourmand and woodsy and relatively unique among my collection. 10/10 would recommend to anyone, unless they hate lavender and amber.

Why on earth did I wait so long to try this one? I had bought a tester of this fragrance a year and a half ago but never had occasion to wear it - until now! Being late Autumn and given the fact that the weather has been like winter here, I wanted something that I knew would stand out in the cold temperatures. This did not disappoint! Like all Bond's, it's staying power is fantastic, yet I don't find it overpowering. It's just right and I only needed one spray. Mmmm.........totally reminds me of a big stack of warm pancakes dripping with sweet maple syrup along with a cup of black coffee. I love it!!!! It seems odd that I'd want to smell like breakfast but I just can't help myself! The scent is addictive and actually gives me a craving for real pancakes with syrup! I would love to have a full bottle of this but most likely will not shell out the high cost for one so I will enjoy every last drop of my sample until it's completely gone. Now that I've discovered how much I like this, my little sample won't be lasting very long! It does have a unisex vibe but I feel like this one's a little more on the masculine side, even with it's "perfume-y" undertone. Easily my favourite Bond so far.

For me, I tend to reserve “gourmand” as if the notes actually induce hunger in me (hah), or at least make me salivate a little. That being said, on initial application there is a STRONG association with maple syrup happening, but it’s nothing I’d want to consume. The tonka, vanilla, and amber come through a lot more than the coffee for me. That being said, although this is sweet, it’s also very handsome and has a maturity to it. It’s definitely *strong*, but something about it always feels so sexy to me. I keep smelling my wrist again and again (and then I kinda get disgusted from all the overpowering sweetness). As it dries, the cedar and coffee come through more and balance out the sweetness with spice. This has unisex potential, but despite the sweetness and wisps of lavender, I still think of this as quite masc. Still, I wish it wasn’t so asymmetrical and overpowering. I feel the way about New Haarlem that I feel about BPAL’s Dorian: it’s fun to wear sometimes, but I find it to be a *little* much in the saccharine department, and although maybe I’ll procure another decant in the future, I don’t think I could ever do a full bottle. Rating: 7/10 for me.

When I got my first box of 20 (+/-) bonbons as a gift (a Christmas special they had one year verrry long ago) my first true Bond No 9 love and “go to” fragrance for date night was New Haarlem. It is gloriously beautiful, heady, sexy, warm-beyond-warm and very sultry. It is a true unisex fragrance, created by one of my favorite perfumiers, the master, Maurice Roucel, who gave us K by Krizia, and two fabulous Malle fragrances, Dans Tes Bras and Une Fleur de Cassie. To be honest, I don’t get the breakfast accord everyone else does, what I do get is sweet pipe tobacco and coffee. More like a card game but a classy one like in Oceans 11 or a James Bond film, with elaborate bourbons and ridiculously dear single malts, coffee for the non drinkers, smoking the most pleasant smelling pipe tobacco sprinkled with single note men’s perfumes like patchouli, vanilla, amber, lavender and bergamot, and the wood smells from an elaborate card table and cedar chests. This is so beautiful, and possibly reminiscent of a time when Harlem was King of the entertainment world in the Roaring Twenties. Think about how much thought went into this perfume. It’s truly a work of art.

I like gourmand fragrances, but New Harlem is something more. It is little sweet and little dry at the same time, however dry nuances are very resinous, oily, brown in color. I remember my grandma making kind of caramel to give the color to cakes she were baking. She was keeping spoon with sugar in the flame of the oven till it began liquid and then she mixed it with water. I loved this moment because sugar formed kind of foam growing up on the spoon. Smell of this caramel continues throughout whole development of New Harlem. Therefore it is very special for me. I couldn’t even imagine that childhood memory may be so realistic. NH doesn’t change too much but I don’t care. Another association I have with this wonderful fragrance is coffee shop called Alan’s caffe in Corvallis OR. I have worked for few years at Oregon State University and we had ritual at this time .... morning cup of coffee and ginger scones..... so tasty so delicious so full of flavor. New Harlem is like these mornings from the past. I want more and more. Thus try it and have your pleasure .... I can guarantee you will be in the heaven.

I'm sure this has been said before and I won't be the last to say it but now I get to shout it from the rooftops since Bond had the good sense to bring this masterpiece back: I smell like lavender pancake syrup! This is perhaps one of the best perfumes ever created. Maurice I could just give you a big forehead smooch for creating this intoxicating blend of notes. There's been many that attempted but none that have ever come close to being this good. I have an older bottle and be still my heart as I go reading reviews in hopes that they didn't tweak the formula too much. If I hear good things I'll be putting a backup bottle of this on the wishlist for Christmas. This also smells like how you imagine a vanilla latte to taste as a child from it's creamy sweet smell. Then you finally taste it and it's not what you imagined. But with this perfume you can turn back time and still smell like keeping the dream alive. And when a perfume smells this intoxicating there's no reason to delegate it to a season, a time of day, an occasion. We could all only dream that life should always smell this good.

Sleepy Winter Morning (Maurice Roucel, 2003) Bottle Design: Susan Wacker At first I was not a fan of New Haarlem, considered it to be unbalanced and impossible to wear. But then a complete overturn has happened in the form of fresh autumn air. Everything hidden under several layers was finally revealed. As usually in life, thin is the line between love and hate. Obviously only the intensity of emotions are important and like in chemistry the charges are quickly exchanged. New Haarlem is a scent of beautiful lavender and coffee on the warm base. Bergamot only introduces the main players and leaves. Classic Roucel's fougere lavender and espresso coffee are perfectly complementary and forms new olfactive entity. The base of patchouli, tonka and vanilla is to die for. It is hard to resist such heavenly gourmand combo. To me New Haarlem is olfactive description of a sleepy winter morning. The coffee wakes me up, but warm sweetness puts me to sleep again. A perpetual morning battle. Rating: 7/10 Edit: Sad to hear rumors that this legend could be discontinued.

The note breakdown states that the openings are lavender, bergamot, and green leaves. However, this is different from what I get on the initial spray. Once I spray my skin, all I smell is a bomb of maple syrup and pancakes. And this is what the opening is to me. Only after about 5 minutes, once the sweetness calms, can I smell one of the middle notes: coffee. So, after about the fifth-minute mark, you are left with a complete breakfast that lasts for about a whole hour. After the hour mark, I began to get a woody note from the cedar listed as a mid-note. This woody note adds a subtle, earthy undertone to the sweet breakfast scent. After about four hours, the dry-down finally hits, adding vanilla, tonka, and amber. The dry-down is the final stage of the fragrance, where the top and middle notes have melded, leaving a lingering base of warm, sweet vanilla, Tonka, and amber, creating a creamy feel from the scent. The scent lasts on my skin for about 9 hours, which is great for wearing out for the whole day.

It's fair to say this is my wife's favorite fragrance on me. She calls it "Breakfast Cologne". I got my bottle before they temporarily discontinued it. I'm glad it's back but...wow...hard to get as good of a deal on this stuff now. To fantomette, this is a lavender bomb and I wonder if lavender stands out with your skin chemistry? This really does smell like pancakes, syrup, and coffee. The notes just meld together and create an amazing breakfast accord that is just so intoxicating. Side note...I feel "intoxicating" is becoming an overused buzz word amongst reviewers. A lot like "panty dropper" or "compliment monster" etc. I say this because I want you to know that I truly mean intoxicating. If you've ever walked into a kitchen or diner and got hit with that smell of fresh coffee and pancakes...this is it. Long lasting and great sillage. However, priced over $200 it's less value for money. Worth it, but I'm jaded. 8/10

This one had to grow on me a bit; when I first got it, I thought it was too harsh in the opening and too sweet throughout the rest. Syrup and pancakes is the common sentiment in the reviews, and it's no different for me. Wasn't my thing at first, hence I do think it's not the best blind buy. However, after settling a bit, I can appreciate what this offers. The sweetness certainly has mellowed out, not sickly sweet as it once was. Coffee IMO is not the star of the show here, but the aromatic, slightly spicy touch it brings is evident. The coffee and vanilla notes are enhanced and given a masculine identity via the cedar and patchouli, producing a very well-blended scent. The projection and longevity are sufficient, not outstanding, but not inadequate. Be hesitant to blind buy, but this should be on your sample list. New Haarlem is Sunday brunch in a bottle, and it's quickly became a go-to for me on the Lord's Day. 8/10

SEXY PANCAKES!! At least that's what my Wife calls it... And I have to agree. Very interesting, breakfast type gourmand. It took about half a dozen wearings to really get the full scope of this fragrance. Things like the spices and amber were alluding my nose until this last time. Mostly, I believe, because it is a very sweet fragrance. I get a similar vibe from this that I get from Tom Fords tobacco vanille and oud wood. Im not saying they smell similar, just that they share a spicey richness and longevity. I adore this perfume. At first, I asked myself why anyone would want to smell like breakfast!? I gave it a while and came back to it and boy am I glad I did! All I really got at first was maple syrup and vanilla. Then the patchouli and amber start to bloom and it takes on a super sexy quality. Easily one of the best gourmands out there. Good job bond!