California Chocolate

California Chocolate opens with bright, juicy, tangy grapefruit. It’s quite boozy from the start, with the cognac making a strong entrance. The chocolate is present too, but it's secondary to the citrus for me. Overall, I get the sense of freshly squeezed citrus juice mixed into a subtle chocolaty-smooth liqueur. The citrus I smell in this is distinctively grapefruit in the top notes, but I also start to smell the orange as it wears. This scent is sweet but not excessively so. The citrus notes are delicious and realistic, bringing a zestiness to the fragrance that is a nice contrast to the warm chocolate undertones. I don’t feel the patchouli is that prominent, but I’m not particularly sensitive to patchouli in fragrances generally. This is a very well-conceived gourmand. This is the brightest and most vibrant take on chocolate that I've tried thus far.

I tried the Seattle Chocolate, and loved that one so much, that I wanted to try this one too. I'm really glad I did. This is a beautiful chocolate-dipped orange! It certainly is sufficiently similar to Kyse Elegance Sombre, that I don't need both, and I think the Kyse is slightly more user-friendly if I recall correctly. However, for those of you looking for a brilliant and unique chocolate scent, certainly don't pass up these two from Olympic Orchids! If I had my pick I'd get the Seattle Chocolate from OO and the Elegance Sombre from Kyse, and I'd be able to hit that chocolate craving whenever it comes! :)

Where Seattle Chocolate is dark, dry and dramatic, California Chocolate is its sunny, juicy milk chocolate sibling. It's gourmand, but don't expect a mere chocolate orange - the citrus here is seriously tangy and strong; it is the real focus, with sweet milk chocolate noticeable but in the background. In the first couple of hours, neroli adds a lovely, delicate flourish. Now, after 7 hours, orange, lemon, and milk chocolate remain, fairly soft, but present nonetheless.

My first foray into the world of indie perfumes thanks to thelady :D When I first put this on, I got a lovely blend of oranges and dark chocolate that eventually turned into a gentle booziness. The patchouli and musk aren't too strong in this, so this could be a great scent for someone who only likes a little of either of these in their perfumes.

I won a sample of this and a few other new scents from Olympic Orchids in a givaway on the perfumers blog. On me this is a pretty simple scent with a sharp orange top note that mellows into a boozy vanilla. Very nice, but not really my thing.

Soapy green musky! This a floral irish spring perfume, very fresh, very clean. A chocolate I can wear when raining. This not gormand. Jan 2024 update: irish spring like, soapy, green with chocolate, later soft floral.

Literally orange jaffa cakes. Yummy :3 , it's like a little soapy as well, like a clean feeling , gotta check performance and then update :3 update: PERFOMANCE GUD, YAIIII

I have to say my experience with this one is quite similar to SailorV's; having written my review I realize I'm almost plagiarizing hers. I guess great minds think alike! I got a decant of California Chocolate on a whim when I saw it offered somewhere, just because I was curious to find out how the combination of chocolate and orange would work in a scent. Of course, now that I've tried it, I realize it smells the only way it possibly could: as others have mentioned, it's very reminiscent of dark chocolate/orange confectionery. More specifically, it makes me think of what's called "Orangettes" here (candied but not very sweet orange peels covered in dark chocolate), or even Orange-flavored Jaffa cakes. Which is a scent I like, because I like those sweets, but I'm not so sure if I enjoy it as a perfume. On top of that, I usually like my gourmands to include other components as well, to keep them from smelling too straightforwardly edible, but in this one I find the none-gourmand notes a little offputting. There's something slightly dank about the patchouli/musk combination in the base that just doesn't work very well with the gourmand part of the fragrance, at least to my nose. All in all I'm glad I got to test this to satisfy my curiosity, but I don't think my decant will ever be fully used up. I don't dislike California Chocolate, but I can't really think of any occasion when I'd like to smell like this - except possibly around Christmas, and I have enough scents for that period that I feel a lot less lukewarm towards.

This is not at all what I was expecting, and it took me a while to warm up to it. I had it on my want list before all the notes were uploaded and listed. I was completely oblivious that it had notes like cognac and patchouli, I always imagined it being some sugary sweet orange chocolate. I mean cali chocolate sounds like such a cheerful name, right? Why it is called that I will never know, I call it seattle chocolate all the time on accident because there is nothing cali about this to me. Today is my 2nd time giving this a full wear, and it really is something else. Moody dark chocolate, bright orange, sour fruit, dark booze, vanilla, musk, earth, and maybe just a little decay. Dry and wet all at the same time. It makes me feel like wearing black clothing, but in an oh so good way. This perfume was really such a shock to me! It took sometime to wrap my head around it, but now that I "get" it I really do like it. To me it is a moody gourmand with a lot of personality and angles.

From someone who typically runs the other way from gourmands, this is delightful. The chocolate here is dark as night, dry and so bitter it makes your mouth water, and the wild orange balances it perfectly with its brightness and juiciness. None of the other notes are particularly prominent to me but altogether they form a strong supporting act to keep the dark chocolate and orange playing together. For such a classic flavor combination, this scent profile is sparse in the fragrance world. There's a flirtiness here I love. I get the feeling of biting through a hardened layer of chocolate over dried fruit, so good. Try this!

I order samples from KrystalFragrances and she kindly included this one as a free gift with one of my gourmandy purchases. I had no idea what I was about to smell lol my first spritz literally had me jerk my arm from my face and go "phew!" lol Definitely a super boozy orange with touch of chocolate. Seriously that first spray was so strong. I'd be super intrigued to smell this on a guy for some reason. Not sure how I feel about it on me though. For me its the brother of Panah London's Pink Champagne Truffle (with Panah's fragrance feeling a lot more feminine).

218) La note de chocolat en ouverture est ici la même que dans Seattle chocolat accompagnée d'orange, de pamplemousse et d'une pointe légère de fleur d'oranger. Le chocolat se fait de plus en plus discret, le coeur du parfum s'équilibrant sur l'orange qui reste fraiche grâce à l'acidité des autres agrumes et domine heureusement un fond très dense de patcouli-vanille-musc. Un parfum fruité, patissier, très bien construit qui arrive à rester frais.

Not really a true review, just my wear notes. May they be helpful. 9/19/21 Opens heavy with orange and chocolate. Smells very much like essential oils, almost too much so. Could be a candle. Becomes more like a true perfume as it wears. Nicely sweet, not overly so, not like the modern sweet screech. Becomes a nice fall/winter scent. 10/31/22 Has a candle-y sandalwood waxy base. Slightly metallic but not in a harsh way.

The boozines and citrus is so strong, the chocolate is almost in the backseat with the other two driving recklessly. I think if it was more chocolate and less drunk orange, it would be more wearable. Hard to find an appropiate time to wear, makes you hungry! Lasts really long. Most other perfumes the reviews say it lasts long and on me it dissapears after 2 hours, this one really does last a long time. About 8 hours.

Around Christmas they sell these chocolate orange balls wrapped in a gold foil. I don't know the name of them but they taste almost exactly like this smells, although this fragrance smells way less synthetic. It's opening is fantastic and strange, but then turns into a "clean bathroom" smell before becoming a dry and sweet vanilla on the dry down. I like it, but not enough to buy a full bottle.

This is still a little woodsy like Seattle Chocolate, but a darker wood instead of pine (probably the patchouli and cognac give this impression). Chocolate starts off very thick and the orange undertone reminds one of Jaffa Cakes as a previous reviewer has already mentioned. Into the drydown it loses much of the chocolate flair and becomes a clean vanillic orange. 7.5/10

Liked it decently enough on its own but to really amp up that orange i spray some tangerine & amber body spray over after i use it and that literally works like magic. Smells identical to those chocolate covered orange jam sticks and lasts a decent while, projects better than Seattle chocolate as well which i like.

Chocolate covered candied orange slices between stale biscuits. Hubby likes it. The staleness only lasted a short while in the opening and disappeared while the scent became a chocolate orange candle. I'd love this in candle form. -

I love this one, the notes are right, a chocolate orange. Just wished it lasted longer! I might go anosmic on it after awhile.

Nicely done orange chocolate combo. This one succeeds where all others have failed.