Tea & Tobacco

Smoky, dark, and masculine. It's a lovely break from the rest of my florals, gourmands, and even orientals. If you're a woman on the daring side who loves dark/gothic scents, get this! I imagine an actress in a 40s film noir or current day neo-noir wearing this.

Woah! The opening of this one was very hard for me. I love weird scents but this one was so harsh that I immediately regretted spraying it. From the nozzle there is a strong tea of course. Upon spraying you then get a very harsh choking smoke. IMHO it's not tobacco like, but rather, a dry smoke from a smoldering fire where someone burnt something that they shouldn't have. It took all of my will not to scrub this off, but I know to give scents a chance. After about 30 minutes the tea reenters with cedar, and a touch of jasmine to soften the scent. Combined with the smoke the scent becomes quite enjoyable at this stage. The sandalwood gives it a touch of powderiness. On my skin it lasts about 5-6 hours and then becomes a skin scent for a couple more hours. The smoke remains till the end. I don't really sense the white chocolate until about 6 hours (with my nose to my wrist). The smoke is there at all times overseeing everything. Tea & Tobacco is definitely unisex - leaning masculine. It's like EA's Green Tea turned rebel. I guess they had to keep the name with the line, but Ganache should have called this Smoke N Tea (like their Smoke N Haught). I will wear this again, but this time I will be prepared for that opening! I will also try layering this with other Ganache scents that I have. I think that smoke will be very interesting with the sweet perfumes.

received a mega-shipment of Ganache scents the other day (with exuberant rainbow confetti, yay!) and this was the first scent I rushed to try. I've worn it every day since, and it's the one I am most eager to review as well. the first spray is medicinal - vegetal but not in a fresh light watery way. these plants are dense, heavy, pungent, mysterious. then, very quickly, the scent kind of "separates" into its titular notes - moving back and forth between "yum, that's good tea" and "yum, that's good tobacco." the tea here is a dark roasted tea, like Assam or lapsang souchong or my favorite, pu-er. bitter and smoky and fully ripened and challenging. is there anything better? If I hadn't looked at the notes, I would have recognized a sheer floral veil in the background, without being able to pin it down as jasmine. but it's there, working with the wood notes to lend a more mainstream and familiar "perfumey" voice. and whatever sweetness the white chocolate contributes also remains in the background -- here it adds a nutty buttery mouthfeel more than sweetness, for me. Altogether, these supporting notes make the dry down surprisingly gentle and wearable.