Café Simien

This perfume is special. My partner and I have a fairly nice collection, including four others from Mona, and this is without a doubt my favourite of our entire collection. And one we will repurchase when we run out of it. We are from Canada and had the opportunity to go into Mona’s flagship store in Amsterdam. We learned about the stories behind the perfumes before smelling them, and Cafe Simien actually got me emotional when I smelled it for the first time. I fell in love - instantaneously. For me, it is a very light version of a gourmand. It is not overly rich or sickeningly sweet. The patchouli is surprisingly original. The plum opens and stays with the perfume all day. And the coffee, as it was explained to us, is not the smell of coffee, so much as Mr. Dalman’s translation of the taste and acidity of coffee brought out as a scent. It is a shame that there are only a couple of places in the world where perfume lovers can go and smell this perfume. When it’s time to reorder, we may just go back to Amsterdam for that experience.

I have this Mona di Orio, Café Simien, since it was launched in 2019. In the past I found Mona di Orio perfumes sometimes a bit difficult. Many years ago I used Cuir for a while but it had to grow on me. Last winter I discovered Santal Nabataea in one of my Mona di Orio discovery boxes. It was again one that I Iearned to appreciate more and more over time. Now it is my favorite Sandalwood of all time and I am wearing it a lot. Café Simien I wear occasionally on special events like a classical concert or at home when I organize an evening for myself. I think Café Simien is great. It is a wonderful composition of obviously the best aged Patchouli, Plum and dark Coffee. I feel a good level of maturity and equanimity, a level of wisdom. One that lingers in a wonderful way, adds to memories and never loses interest.

A very nice spicy patchouli with a fruity overtone. I like it quite a bit and I'm not normally a patchouli fan. If I were ever to buy a patchouli-forward fragrance, this would be the one. I don't smell coffee in here (see Rob's helpful information in that regard in the review a few below this one).

Beautiful patchouli based scent which reveals notes of plum, coffee and synthetic musk as it dries off. Simply constructed with a lovely, natural aged patchouli absolute, the unisex scent has moderate sillage and very good longevity. Sophisticated and classy but very pricey. Enjoy!

Does anyone think this bares some similarity to Thomas de Monaco Raw Gold (2020 version)? To me this smells very similar with maybe some nuanced differences.