Tè Nero

I will start this review by saying that I bought it for weird reasons, that I really wouldn't have imagined. I am a big tea fan. I like drinking fancy obscure teas that come from far away, whole leaf, orthodox teas, you name it. When I first heard of (yet another but I am ok with this) tea perfume from this house, I was really happy and curious. The first time i tried it (on a blotter) though, I was SO disappointed. I couldn't smell it too clearly, it seemed boring, flat. It turns out, I have discovered that most L'Erbolario perfumes REALLY do not perform well on blotters. Like, at all. I could barely smell it, but couldn't understand it. Then I used a shower gel sample they gave me at the store, and lo and behold, the smell was heavenly. I decided I would buy it - and i did. 50 ml. This perfume does NOT smell like tea. At all, to me. Maybe one can perceive a 5% of something that can be associated with tea, but only if you close your eyes and know that this is supposed to be a tea fragrance. Other than that, it smells really good, and very much gourmand-like. Yep. That's weird. No tea, not greenery, but gourmand notes. That's the thing. As soon as I smelled it, I immediately had 2 flashbacks. One was about a grape jam that an old woman I knew used to make. It was delicious. The second one was a cake filled with plum jam I had in the past. The perfumes smelled so much like those memories! It was so cool to realize that perfume smelled just like that cake I had had years ago. I had to buy it. So. Is it a tea perfume, does it smell like tea? No. Is it good? Yes. Sweet, gourmand, cake like, jammy, plummy, buttery with vanilla and some amber, slightly musky in the drydown. The performance is on the weaker side, it doesn't last tooooo long and sillage is moderate. On the other hand, this means you can be liberal with it and won't risk choking someone out. It is pretty feminine too. It was a surprise, as I was expecting a tea perfume, and ended up with a cake perfume! edit: oh yeah, btw. It is very similar to Montale Intense Café. Less coffee, way less coffee, but the other notes are pretty much there. To be honest I think I prefer Tè Nero, it is a little less sweet

I am not a big tea fan, I drink tea occasionally, but I’m always happy to test new things. While in a L’Erbolario store in Sardinia to buy a bottle of Pistacchio, the sales associate recommended me Te Nero as her personal favourite perfume from the 2024 L’Erbolario launches. I took the blotter without having very high hopes to like it and I left the store 20 minutes later with a 50 ml bottle. First and foremost, I wouldn’t call this perfume a black tea (any type of tea actually) centric perfume. To me, Te Nero is about 80% warm vanilla, amber gourmand with heavy, sweet, jammy rose and some hints of tea. Take that as you want, but I love it! Don’t get this blindly without trying on your skin expecting a through and through black tea/mate scent. But if you’re like me and love gourmands with a slight bit of tea blended in, you’ll most likely love Te Nero. As with most L’Erbolario, doesn’t perform spectacular, it’s fairly long lasting, about 5-6 hours with an intimate sillage. But it costs around 28 euros for a bottle, so you get what you paid for! Nothing fancy as far as packaging and the bottle design goes, but the colours of the packaging, a warm medium brown matches well with how the perfume smells like. A great cozy, sweet scent perfect for fall!

A wonderful, enveloping, and relaxing sweet scent of autumn tea. Instead of the usual spicy notes, we are treated to delightful vanilla and amber with a hint of citrus. The blend is beautifully smooth and soothing, like a cup of fine black tea. However, the scent is quite fleeting, lasting briefly and intimately on the skin.

I love a vanilla amber and this has just the right amount of floral to keep it light enough for frequent wear and black tea to keep it interesting. Will need to get my hands on a full bottle.

When I first tried Tè Nero on my skin, I could only smell vanilla, amber, and rose. Despite its sweet side, I found it lovely, as these are three notes I appreciate in perfumery. Then, as time went on, the tea and maté emerged, each bringing a bitter and even green note to the composition. It was actually thanks to this bitter/green facet that I went back to the store and bought it, because it’s precisely this aspect that makes the fragrance interesting. For the price, it's really nice. Longevity and sillage are very good on me.