Qahwa

Rasei Fort Qahwa one of the trio of recent releases from the perfumer/creator out of Melbourne who leads the Fort & Manle line, as well. Inspired by Arabic coffee, it smells of a wonderful harmony among oud, spices, citruses, and coffee itself. It’s warm and dense, has a little bit of sweetness to complement the dark/spicy central dominance. It has a great oud note that reminds me of Kerosene Blackmail, dark and resinous, impactful, but neither medicinal nor particularly animalic. It’s quite dense and very rich for the opening hours, but does dry down with less projection, albeit not much evolution, which is fine, as I think the scent is really quite outstanding, even if it’s not particularly loud for very long. Overall, I find the performance to be very good, bordering on great, though I know I’m holding it to a high standard given the character and price point. I’m very impressed with this creation, and it was the entry in the trio that I was most looking forward to trying out. Qahwa is sold in the US via Luckyscent, Ministry of Scent (formerly Tigerlily), and Sealed Essence, perhaps others, at the robust pricing of $250 for 30ml, in extrait concentration, as a limited edition, so it’s pricey stuff, but I’d argue that the quality of the composition makes it warrant consideration. 8 out of 10

Soft pleasant natural gourmand scent with woody aromatic touches. The scent opens with notes of coffee and light spices. The brief heart has dried fruits, citrus and slight incense. The perfume settles on a powdery bed of patchouli, labdanum and woody notes. The scent has intimate to moderate sillage and longevity. It lightly lingers on skin mostly unobtrusively which can be an advantage or disadvantage based on your perspective. Enjoy!

This latches onto the skin and lasts, very spicy, aromatic feel on a bed of middle east oud. It sits close to the skin but it’s detectable in the air for a short time to mark a sensible, respectful trail. Nothing loud or disrespectful. This is also likely to smell the same on anyone. I was expecting something unique, compelling and memorable with this by the description and story. This smells like the most typical arab dad / uncle aromatic oud smell. It’s not a bad smell by any means but this is very common and lacks a quality which sets it apart from the thousands of middle eastern extraits/ oils for older men, this is just carbon copy with arabic coffee as its initial blast. These kinds of smells are meant for a specific crowd! I’m from the Emirates if that helps some individuals. Despite the name Qahwa (Coffee in arabic), this doesn’t fit the bill of a coffee scent, but a popular middle-east aromatic oud scent profile, one that sells well and dominated by a saturated market. For sure not worth the money, you already know a thousand dupes of this for a fraction of its cost.

im sorry this smells like poop, its the birch wood, cloves with the frankincense throwing me off