Tonka Cola

Merry Christmas 🎄... winner, winner- chicken 🐔 dinner! Finally, not yet ANOTHER fragrant disappointment... it straddles the boundary between gourmand & ‘elevated’ gourmand - unlike soda snob & Les soda pop, there are several dimensions to her... she is certainly reminiscent of soda while have plenty to offer a Martian who stopped by this orb on his way through the galaxy to smell all that we have procured & composed even though said Martian 👽 would not be familiar with ‘cola’ insofar as the beverage is concerned. I got 8 other fragrances & this is the only one I KNEW was going to be a keeper! Even my 70+ year old non ‘frag head’ mother was duly impressed & smiled when I told her I would decant a travel for her. If you enjoy sweet, surprising & somewhat spicy perfumes - give her a sniff or few & maybe she’ll come home with you too! (Not a safe blind buy - however, ALL the others I got epitomize ‘safe blind buy’ & they are likely destined to a new home, I am an easy legit check if any of these (& a ton more) sound appealing •Dolce & Gabbana pour femme 100ml •Chloe, Nomade 10ml •Burberry Her (never had a chance as my 👃🏼 cannot perceive ambroxan) 10ml •M. Micallef, Gardenia 10ml •the now discontinued ‘Good Fortune’ 🔮 Intense Elixir xViktor & Rolf (if you are looking for a sub for Alien 👽 Absolue, she’s a beautiful quality stand in) 100ml •Van Cleef & Arpels Precious Oud (jury still out, just a mini) •Armaf eau de Montagne, Mountain Edition (it’s Arabian, needs time to oxidize & mature but I will own all true unisex & femme leaning from the ‘odyssey’ line because I’m in love with the ‘looks like a thermal container for soup’ aesthetic 🤷)

Great stuff for the Fall, Winter, and dreary early Spring days when it's cool and rainy. It is a comforting scent, much like how the name would have you imagine. Opens with a punchy realistic lemon zest over Coca-Cola with dashes of warm spices, I don't really get the cherry note on my skin, which is good as that's typically a more feminine note in my opinion. The warm spices are present in the opening and stick around for much of the wear. As it dries down, the freshness of the citrus opening fades and flawlessly transitions into a lighter patchouli note, in the deep dry down that vanilla(tonka)/benzoin combo shines along with a light incense vibe (possibly from the labdanum) off of my skin too that works so well with the other notes. My only complaint is that it's not a deeply complex scent and doesn't change all too much after the top notes fade. Longevity and protection are very good, as they are with many of Montale's creations: I get 8 hours on skin, much longer on clothing with a nice arms length scent bubble for the first 3 hours, diminishing in the 4th and 5th hour before slowly creeping back to a skin scent around hours 6-8. I would classify this scent as completely unisex, it seems slightly more feminine compared to some of the other warm vanilla frags in my collection, but those are generally more masculine scents. It's very nice, I bought my bottle last year and had completely forgotten about it until tonight when I decided to try it again. I would give it a 8.25/10

This is my first wearing of Mancera Tonka Cola, a 2022 release that, for me, is fortunately as described, as I enjoy the taste and smell of cola, though it’s proven to be a bit difficult to capture in fragrance, the balance of the citrus and caramel in particular being the most elusive. The fragrance seems to have yielded some mixed responses, which I at least partly attribute to the difficulty of capturing cola but also that ideas about cola can vary somewhat. I’m really delighted by this fragrance, which does have some of the brightness and citrus that are required to round out the cola concept, particularly in the opening, though it leans little more to the dark, caramel, spicy side of things, of course with a pinch of the sweet/nutty/sharp tonka to round things out, though the fragrance does not scream “tonka” to me at all, really. Additionally, it performs well and has a very subtle evolution, predictably a little brighter and sharper in the opening, becoming a little darker and smoother during the dry down, while essentially remaining mostly the same fragrance throughout. I’m not familiar with many cola-themed or cola-dominant scents but this and Hendley Cola are surely my favorites as of now, and I’d recommend looking into this one. It does not appear to be for sale yet in the US but I’ll have to keep an eye out. 8 out of 10

Firstly, I have to say that I adore this fragrance. I basically get cherry and cola from start to finish. Different variations throughout the journey of the fragrance, but they are the notes that dominate the entire journey. It starts with a blast of cherry cola, then the cherry settles down and becomes less sweet, but still dominates the scent and, as it dries down, a beautiful creamy vanilla joins the cherry. The three stages are almost like - the opening, when you first open a fresh, cold can of cherry cola, the mid, when the can has been sitting for 20 minutes and the fizz has died down, then the dry down is like you add a dash of vanilla to the drink. I love this fragrance. To my nose, and I don't often say this, it is a beast performer. I wore it today, whilst working outdoors on a cool fresh day, and 4 sprays lasted me for 5-6 hours , with constant wafts, and it stayed on my skin as a more vanilla scent until I showered 2 hours after that. Projection is really good too, especially for the first couple of hours, and it is excellent value at it's current price point. I bought this in December, so I can't comment on which seasons it is appropriate but, living in the UK where hot days are few and far between, I think this will be in my rotation on a frequent basis....

Cherry and vanilla. Smells kind of like a less cloyingly sweet Paris Corner Emir Frenetic that I gave to my wife from my previous Fragrancebuyca haul . Especially in the air. But this is much better respectively Oh yea , I should mention Frentic deliciousness is a dupe of one of the great legendary Dior offerings that they discontinued.. powdery cherry vanilla and spices. I believe if you added the airy and bright carbonated notes from this they would be 75% to each other. So if you like those you’ll like this one. I wouldn’t say it is redundant to get Tonka cola if you have Frentic. But you probably won’t wear it anymore . With that said Tonka cola is a slightly powdery and very bright . An airy vanilla caramel cherry with some carbonated or citrusy pop in the opening , in my opinion Tonka is more versatile . I believe this could be worn when it is warm, where I wouldn’t use Emir Frentic The Dry down Smells damned delicious. To me that’s where most Manceras shine. Well all I have is what’s in my collection to paint a picture with so there it is. So this is really not bad at all. But I’m not sure if I should be smelling like this as man. I’d rather my wife have at this one . It’s just really good if you want to buy a sample is all I’m saying.