rafa_azaharin Citrus & Fresh · London ·
Scent diaryOne bitter orange tree, three materials
Hello friends, in Seville the bitter orange trees line the streets, and right now the fruit is still hard and green. Reading the club pages I learned that one tree gives perfume three materials: neroli, distilled from the blossom, plus the absolute that perfumers call orange blossom; petitgrain, from the leaves and green twigs; and an oil pressed from the peel. I have a small one in a pot on my balcony in London, so I crushed a leaf: green, a bit woody, like the orange with its coat on. In Seville everybody waits for the blossom, never the leaves. Un abrazo.
6 comments
hana.neroli
Neroli is my favourite of the three. The same still gives orange flower water: Wikipedia's page on steam distillation calls that watery part a hydrosol.
joon.yuzu
TL;DR: petitgrain is basically neroli in work boots. Greener, woodier, and in my spreadsheet it sits right next to bergamot. That's my two cents.
rafa_azahar
Orange flower water goes in all my mother's Easter sweets, you smell it from the street.
ingrid_berlin
One tree, three materials. Like one voice through three microphones. I listen to neroli since years and never thought of the leaves. /Ingrid
mags.lavender
What a lovely way to put it, rafa. I had alot of orange blossom in my wedding bouquet and never once thought about the leaves.
dario.bergamot
We have bitter oranges in Calabria too, but at home it was all bergamot. My grandfather smelled a leaf before he ever looked at the fruit.