Manhattan Midnight

I've heard all the thing about City Rythm, the artificial hype, the mild controversy surrounding the original nose for the brand, the over the top presentation, with all that being said, I genuinely think this is a personal top 3 fragrance of all time for me, it's a bit nostalgic for me, as I smelled this on someone during the first ever trip to Pittsburgh in the beginning of 2026, I had to ask them what it was, and I was pointed this masterpiece, it's a nice smooth complex tea & spice blend that I can't get enough of. For what you pay for (roughly $180-$200 for full size) you get a beautiful, weighty bottle with a satisfying heavy cap and good pressurized atomizer, the scent, as others have said, does last a loooong time, not to mention the huge projection. For how good & lasting this is I think it's an excellent price, especially compared to designer frags. I personally don't like spending more than $200 for 100ml most of the time unless it's a small time niche brand with high oil concentration. (Shout-out Team Clean, VOYDE, and funny enough, Prisma Parfums, which is ran by the original nose behind City Rythm, who I recommend you check out & compare the fragrances that are the OG formulations of some City Rythm fragrances.) All in all, I can't get enough of Manhattan Midnight, it's sophisticated, addicting, great for dressing up or being casual while wanting to smell fresh. My ONLY complaint for this, and it goes for every full size bottle from City Rythm unfortunately, is the unnecessary glitter added to the juice.

This fragrance is loved by every single person that has ever smelled it on me. I don't know why Fragrantica and other places have such polarizing reviews because in real life, people love this stuff. I am no exception. I was honestly scared after seeing all the bad reviews because I blind bought it since my collection was lacking a unique winter scent. You probably shouldn't blind buy it like I did, but I definitely don't regret it. If I can apply an image to this fragrance it would be like walking in a park on a snowy winter night, with a nice warm tea in your hands and a guy standing roughly a football field away smoking a clove cigarette (but in the best way possible). Streetlights dimly lighting the path you are walking on, and whiffs of pine coming from the Christmas tree seller down the street. It gets plenty of compliments, and is absolutely amazing performance wise just like all the City Rhythm I have tried. If you want a unique Winter signature I couldn't personally recommend anything better.

This is genuinely my most favorite cologne I own (at this time) in my collection. Everything about it is perfect. The bottle is nice, really pressurized atomizer, cool bottle and the juice has sparkles in it, how cool is that! Sadly, I only have a 30ml at the moment, however I expect it to last me a long time. MM is fresh and clean but has this sophisticated dark and rich smell to it. It may remind some people of blue energy drinks, I get that but it slowly fades away, the sweetness tones down and makes it smoother. This stuff is a HEAVY hitter as well, has around 10-12 hours of projection and lasts around 17 hours!! Everything about this fragrance is perfect and I really recommend everyone to try it at least once. 9.6/10

This is a very nice scent - and I can understand the comparisons to gph 2. The opening is similar to gph 2 - but the dry down distances itself by having a bit more depth and is a bit darker and denser. In general, I find this to be a pretty calming, inoffensive scent without going the typical “blue” direction. As a lover of GPH 2, I’m so happy to have something in the same category. It’s truly an all occasion scent that can be dressed up or down - and seems to perform pretty well. I can generally understand the hype around it - although I don’t personally feel that it could ever live up to it, it’s definitely and undeniably quality scent that departs from the typical formula you’d find on a Macy’s counter. Nice stuff.

After months of constantly checking Fragrantica to see if this has finally been added, the day is here. I got midnight soon after it came out and have adored it since. It smells like if you mixed blue Powerade and raspberry tea together and added some nice spices to smooth it out. It's SUPER unique and also mass appealing at the same time. Will pull you many compliments and can be worn by someone no matter the age. I'd say it definitely leans masculine, but can easily be pulled off by women as well. One of the most beautifully blended tea fragrances I've ever smelled. Performance is amazing too. Highly suggest looking into this one! Smell 10/10 Longevity 8/10 Sillage 7/10 Compliments 10/10

This is seriously one of the TOP 3 i've ever smelled, a super wellblended masterpiece. Reminds me of a layton with tea and more fresh! First Bergamot kicks in together with cinnamon and violet, fresh and sweet. After 20 min comes tea and pepper together with recinous notes. Tobacco, Vanilla and vetiver stays in the backround! Manhattan Midnight reminds me of both Layton and lafayette street with a hint of tea and freshness. They are in the same sphere as Manhattan Midnight. Performance its seriously good, my co-workers could feel presence in rooms i've been in. And it projects like crazy! Winter,Fall,Night/Day scent!

Wow, this fragrance really surprised me in the best way. I saw the mixed reviews on Fragrantica and decided to blind buy Manhattan Midnight. Honestly, I’ve blind bought my entire City Rhythm collection so far, and I’ve loved every single one. With Manhattan Midnight, I do get that blue Powerade vibe in the opening, but to me, it comes across way more sophisticated and refined. My nose picks up on the tea and myrrh right away, creating this fresh yet deep and intriguing scent profile. It performs beautifully on my skin, and I can’t wait to wear it more often. I rate it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5).

I just got a sample of this and I’m buying a full bottle as we speak. This is very mass appealing yet light and subtle. I can’t even describe this fragrance just know it’s Christmas. I get the blue Powerade aspect to it but also not rlly lol. It smells very candle like at first then the tea shines through and then has a cinnamon tobacco aspect to it that makes it very beautiful. Most cm fragrances I’ve tried are very poorly blended or overly sweet but this one hits the spot. It’s almost bubble gummy but it’s gorgeous. Indie niche continues to be the best

I tested this fragrance in a shop and left home without buying it, I felt a little to much spice in the beginning of the perfume. At the evening I keept smelling to my arm, where I sprayed this, because it was so attractive. The next day I went down and bought it. I still think that the start of the fragrance is a little to strong, but the drydown is so good, i ignore the beginning. And just to clarify, the beginning is not bad at all, but can feel to spicy, especially if you aren’t good with spicy notes. But overall this fragrance is very good

Wearing it right now and funnily enough, it really does have that blue Powerade vibe people mention! It’s surprisingly accurate. The scent itself feels quite light, but the sillage is definitely strong so far, as my colleagues told me they can smell it in the office. Just sprayed a couple of times, so I’m still testing the longevity, but first impressions are really positive. I’m enjoying it a lot at the moment. Will update after a few more wears once I get a better sense of how it performs throughout the day.

Its stunning in every sense of the word. For those confused on when/where to wear it you can wear it most settings besides the summer. It shines in crisp weather, think your cold fall/winter days. Especially in the night time, it cuts through the air you smell the unique pimiento pepper note often, tobacco and tea also shine in this one. Put it simply it is an acquired taste. It also smells nothing like blue gatorade. It performs like a beast and to me smells amazing. One of City Rhythms best ever.

The blue powerade is only in the first 10 mins of the opening. After that you get a green woody, manly scent. That has a solid tabac base. Very mature and different from most of the CR line. I like it, a solid date night scent, green spicy with incense. Almost middle eastern but not over the top. UPDATE the dry down improves as the day goes on. was still on my shirt in the morning. Moving this to LOVE instead of LIKE

This is Gucci PH 2 Extrait in it's rawest form. Very unhinged and insanely vulgar. No cinnamon like the other but plenty of other spices that set the tone. IDK how but the tea note is super strong and last the duration of the scent. IDK about Blue Powerade as I'm a Pepsi guy but if you want a beast mode spicy tea scent with a hint of sweetness then at least pick up a sample.

I made a mistake only buying a 50ml this is such a gas tea fragrance and it really does have that blue powerade type of vibe everyone talks about but maybe not to the degree that people say it is it really is more tea forward but nonetheless this is gonna stay on my shelf and im getting that 100ml as SOON as my bottle is out

Extremely unique, but also mass appealing. Extremely oil heavy long lasting, but it’s not an insanely piercing scent like a Dior sauvage elixir would be. Smells like a Christmas tree in a sense, but with many other layers added, I think you could wear this year round maybe stick to temperatures under 70 degrees for this.

Blind bought this and I am not disappointed. starts like everyone is saying: with a blue Powerade smell, and dries down to a cinnamon ginger like scent. can't put my nose on what it is. W fragrance but I wouldn't blind buy this, sample it first.

There’s not much for me to add to the first review below. Manhattan Midnight is fantastic and unique. Every time I wear it, I promise myself that I’ll move it up higher in my rotation. It’s classy, elegant, and masculine. Simply beautiful.

smells like a spicy citrusy cigarette with a touch of smoke but in a good way I highly recommend. performance is kind of buns though which is surprising since its extrait de parfum :/ 8.5/10

It is masculine, it does not smell like layton, it is unique but mass appealing, it is long lasting, it is blended very well. Overall very strong 9.4 one of my favorites all time

The best from the house there is a lot of love gone in to this And it complex and projects well past the 3 hour mark finally one that doesn't smell like high end air freshener

An improvement to manhattan all around for me. Perhaps the best city rhythm considering current formulations of all of their offerings now

Very green, earthy, and medicinal in and addictive way. lasts on skin forever.

This fragrance has been getting a lot of hype for a while, with some people saying it smells like blue Powerade and others calling it surprisingly versatile. Looking at the note breakdown, nothing about it really seems like it should be versatile. Spices, tobacco, vanilla, pepper, incense. I really wanted to see if it lived up to everything people were saying. On the very first spray, I actually do get that blue sports-drink comparison, and pretty clearly. More specifically, it smells almost exactly like "Glacier Freeze" Gatorade for the first 15-20 minutes on skin. I think the reason so many people mention this is because the opening doesn’t really smell like any other fragrance or even a familiar real-life scent. It genuinely has that bright, cool, electric “blue drink” vibe, and definitely not just because the juice is blue (sorry Mr. Nasty). After the opening settles, the tea, pimento, pepper, and frankincense start to show up, but the tea keeps the fragrance from becoming overly spicy. It isn’t a tea beverage smell. It’s more like a tea plant: leafy, slightly earthy, and fresh in a way that’s pretty rare for a fragrance built around darker notes. Once it dries down, you finally get the tobacco vanilla combination, but even then it doesn’t resemble any other tobacco vanilla fragrance I’ve tried. The best way I can describe it is like walking through a busy city at night, stepping into a small old art museum that’s just been freshly cleaned, while you’re smoking a pipe. Strange description, but it fits. This definitely leans masculine, though I can see a lot of people enjoying it regardless. It’s unique, complex, and rich enough for spring, fall, and winter evenings, and even summer nights thanks to that surprisingly fresh opening. For a fragrance built on tobacco, vanilla, and vetiver, the brightness up top really boosts its versatility. Performance is excellent as well. One big spray on skin and it practically filled the entire room. The whole fragrance comes across as beautifully complex, slightly citrusy, touched with spice and tea, and grounded by tobacco. Definitely worth trying for the great scent profile and the unique experience it offers.

After trying a handful of City Rhythm, Prima, and Sphinx fragrances (in the vibe I describe next), I truly realized the coconut-lime-vanilla DNA is not the highlight of the brands(s) to me. Fragrances that get a lot of love like Kokonut Daquiri and Miami do not pull me in, tho pleasant. This is nothing like those, which really are recognized as the DNA for, specifically CR. MMid is a strange, honestly intriguing, warm-fresh and green-spicy kinda sweet fragrance for year-round wearing, besides summer days where the profile can be pretty overwhelming, also due to the god performance this has - rather dense frag even for the profile. MMid is my favorite CR hands down, even after trying the not so tropical vanillas the house offers, stuff like New Orleans, Nashville, and Austin. I have not tried the Gucci it gets compared to. However, I do get somewhat of the following: an opening of Herod, likely because of the tobacco + cinnamon, followed by a very green and spicy sweet tea (the sweetness not from sugar, but rather a "brown" sweet aroma, not overwhelming probably due to resins), which from that point on drives all the way to the dry down. Not tea as in other fragrances that I could think of, at least. Overall, could even be worn as a signature, to me more casual than professional, but not playful enough to be avoided to work (unless you wear suit and tie for absolutely everything/layer style). Good price range, good performance, and even presentation is spot on and of quality. Even though I do not love the fragrance, I thoroughly enjoy every time I wear it.

The reviewers weren't lying about the powerade smell, the opening smells like a vaguely berry, sweet tea. The cassis is the strongest note for the first hour but in time you get pepper and cistus (rock rose). Somewhere around the third or fourth hour for me performance takes a nosedive as the black pepper and myrrh take the stage and give it a wet dirt kind of smell. Once the myrrh fades, tobacco takes center stage and it settles into a skin scent. Longevity and projection is ok, and, while pleasant, the "great part" is really short lived. I would recommend trying as it's very unique, but it's not for me.

A fresh green damp quality surrounds a slightly sweet and bitter dark tea/tobacco accord. I get the tea and violet leaf most of all. The fresh shower gel esque blue-green hues are in nice contrast with the darker earthy elements. I enjoy Manhattan Midnight; I haven’t tried anything else from the brand but this one is done well. Can get cloying with more than one spray! Very heavy and synthetic fragrance so be warned. 8.0/10

This to me is what Spicebomb Infrared EDP wanted to be. I understand the love behind that fragrance, but I personally couldn't get behind it due to how powerful the chili pepper note was. This has chili pepper, but it is far more subdued, allowing the other notes to take their turn.

Violet leaf and some spice. Clean, elegant, well made and high quality. This is really solid and I think most people would like it or wear it themselves if they knew about it. Definitely masculine, without being overpowering. This is a brand to keep an eye on.

If you’re into something like Side Effect you might like this but I really don’t like the types of tobacco and vanilla fragrances that have the weird sweet smell. Not a bad smell, just not for me.

smells like bubblegum candy its lovely

This is super strong. This is an 0-2 for this brand for me. Not a fan of the smell. Too strong for me, but I like the longevity and I like the sillage, but just not for me. It performs in a beastly way!

Ended up getting rid of mine. Simply too little occasions where this is actually wearable. It's definitely a unique dark take on a tea scent, but I could not tell when I should wear it. 5/10

Lowk smells like cough syrup and baby powder, absolutely nuclear too. def sample before you buy.

Smells like blue Powerade. Sold mine. Interesting fragrance, though.

fellas truly do not waste your money.. when they say it smells like blue powerade, that’s not like a funny take or poke at the scent. it legit smells like that. imagine bad boy cobalt but even more childish. Definitely not for anyone over the age of 26 in my opinion. This is the second City Rhythm i’ve returned cause of how feminine it is and i wear things like black opium over red and amore caffe for reference

i genuinely do not know how people like this scent. it smells like clove cigarettes. the frankincense absolutely ruins this scent, imo. i dont get that "blue powerade" people are getting and i feel like if this scent wasnt actually blue, people wouldnt say that. the spice in this is overbearing imo and after it dries down its even worse. this is a 1/10 for me, i highly dislike this.

This smells...like compost for the first 1 and half. Just literally like green plants decomposing. It finally softens up and smells more like tea leaves, nut that first part is awful. I have no idea how or why this is getting hyped. I'm relieved I only bought a 10ml decant Also, Powerade??? Are you people mental??? Nothing in here smells like that. WTF

Pepper heavy fragrance with tobacco and incensy smelling notes. This fragrance is not for everyone, Overall rating 6.5/10

Currently wearing Manhattan Midnight in 80-degree California weather, and I can confidently say it smells nothing like Powerade, despite what some reviewers claim. It’s amazing how a few people seem determined to troll every fragrance that gets attention. To my nose, this opens with a beautiful spicy bergamot accord paired with an airy white tea nuance. As it develops, it transitions into a refined woody base while maintaining that ozonic tea character, complemented by subtle touches of tonic tobacco and soft vanilla. The result is a versatile, sophisticated fragrance that works exceptionally well year-round. This one belongs in the category of Gucci Pour Homme II and CH Man. Fragrance is, of course, subjective, and I encourage everyone to form their own opinion. But some of the takes out there are so far removed from my experience that you have to wonder if certain noses ever fully recovered from COVID. “sMelLs lIkE a BLuE pOwErAde” 🥴

I picked this up as a blind buy, even though my experience with other City Rhythm fragrances left me feeling that their scent profiles leaned a bit juvenile. Still, the concept of a blue Powerade–style freshness blended with tobacco and vanilla was too intriguing to pass up. Overall, this is a very good fragrance. It doesn’t completely wow me the way some others do (I tend to favor ginger-based DNA), but it is undeniably unique. The opening is exactly as advertised—a vivid blue Gatorade/Powerade accord—but it’s fleeting, lasting only about 20–30 minutes at most. As it dries down, the tobacco and an incense-like nuance take center stage, with the vanilla gradually emerging underneath. This fragrance is not juvenile in the slightest; in fact, I’d describe it as unapologetically masculine. I cannot see how a woman would wear this personally. AquaticJoe's review is spot-on IMO. I have no idea how some people get compost from this.

This is one of the more interesting fragrances in my collection and I will continue to wear it. It has a very dramatic change from the opening to the middle notes for sure. I don't get the blue powerade, I get more of just a candied citrus in the opening. Blue Powerade was like crack for me all throughout high school and college so I'm quite familiar wit the smell. After about 10-15 minutes, it switches up completely into a spicy floral. That initial blast of pepper that I get reminds me a lot of Prada Black, but it does mellow out pretty quickly. Have not hit the true dry-down yet but, based on the notes, I doubt I am going to find it to be any too offensive. But the initial journey was quite something

Okay, I do not get the blue Powerade smell AT ALL from this. To me, this is a unisex scent that leans masc but not overly so. It’s slightly citrusy, spicy in a kind of warm, potpourri adjacent way tobacco scent. It reminds me of the way my fabulously wealthy grandmother’s fur coat smelled after a night out with my pipe smoking grandfather. Nostalgic yet sexy. Warm and comforting. Sweet and smoky. And it lasts and projects! I’m going on hour 7 of three sprays and it’s still kicking. Will be getting a decant asap, maybe a full bottle.

Very loud, little bit harsh aromatic scent with strong tea notes. Somehow it reminds me of scents like Torino 21, Buongiorno and Imagination all mixed and distorted with heavy pepper, incense and vetiver... This is like the vulgar, loud, zebra leggings wearer cousin of LV Imagination. I guess it might be ok on some people, but I pass...

The fragrance is good but it doesn’t smell Like something a human being would wear if that makes sense. It smells more of like how someone would want their room or home to smell, almost like a candle type of scent. I just can’t see myself wearing the sample I have and spray it in home because it’s a good smell , but on a person???

Am i the only person getting pacific chill vibes from this, i feel like it has that same minty/lime mojito vibe to it. it’s such a plesent playful citrus fragrance, smells very unique. idk if i’m gonna cop a full bottle though, definitely tempted.

Not bad but I just don't think it's as good as it gets credit for. Very, very close to PdM's Valero and I do believe it's redundant to own both.

Imagine walking into a Pier 1 Imports in the early 2010s. That’s what this scent smells like. Now is that good or bad? Up to you.

This on my husband 🫢💦👀 the sexiest spiced apple pie. that is all.