Drink Menta

This one is my favorite of the Ristorante Olfattivo collection. The mint here is not ice cold, it's sweetened and soft, a more fresh herbal minty impression than straight mint, nothing like the toothpaste effect experienced often with the note. Mint also often rapidly degrades into something stale, but not the case with Drink Menta. In the background I sense the slightest floral aspect. A strong milk note is immediately present which I recognize it from other HS scents but very quickly recedes. Drink Menta is a beautiful fragrance and quite different from other mint-themed perfumes that I have experienced in my years sampling and searching. It will take a prominent place in my summer lineup.

After sniffing some other poorly done gourmands from bigger, designer houses was when I came to realize that Hilde really is the gourmand queen. I love this scent and it's incredibly unique for a gourmand. Yet, it makes you think– why hasn't this been made before? Maybe this is niche and something that only Californians would get, but this scent smells like the perfect mojito coffee from Philz Coffee. Yep, if you are addicted to the weird but wonderful combination of mint and creamy iced coffee...congrats! You can wear it without smelling like a syrupy, sugary mess.

When I was a young kid in the early 80s, I had a scratch and sniff book about a mischievous kitten that got into lots of “trouble” due to her bright and curious nature. On one of her adventures, she finds herself in a field of mint. The mint was scratch and sniff. It smelled like kitten, cream and fresh mint. Anyway, I forgot about that book for the last 40 years until I smelled my new decant of Drink Menta tonight. I had an instant flashback of that sweet book, that kitten’s fragrant journeys and the beginning of my love for mint fragrances. Incredible.

i once sprayed a sample of this, then proceeded to get complimented by 3 different strangers while buying kitty litter. in an instant it became my most complimented perfume experience. while i'm not typically an overt gourmand person, a caramel person OR a mint person (in fragrance, at least), hilde, the queen of gourmands, continues to break my brain. her perfumes do something really special on skin, becoming of you. you're not saying "i want to smell like branca menta", you're declaring "I AM BRANCA MENTA!!!!!!"

If there ever was a gourmand to wear in the summer, it would be this. I love smelling like a stracciatella ice cream with a hint of mint. So much fun. So beautiful.