The Jonathan Adler Hashish candle was on my Best of 2009 list, but I’ve never gotten around to reviewing it. What better time than now, when the house or apartment needs some scenting before the onslaught of New Year’s Eve guests (and if you’re staying home alone, a good perfumed candle makes things cozy-contemplative and festive).

Hashish’s listed notes are black currant, green apple, wormwood, patchouli and moss. Hashish is a pungent, “manly” fragrance. As the Hashish candle burns, I smell fruity tobacco mixed with earthy patchouli and moss. The “ripe” fruit notes don’t smell like candy or fruit fresh off the bush or tree; these are intense, fruit-in-liqueur aromas. Weaving in and out of the Hashish composition is the spooky scent of wormwood — green, sweet and a tad medicinal. I also detect a slightly vanillic sweat-musk accord; sometimes this sensual aroma smells like cedar-cumin, other times like dark, boozy chocolate. All Hashish’s simmering fragrance notes produce a complex perfume that, every now and then, resembles the scent of burning marijuana…

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