Niche line By Kilian will launch Imperial Tea and Sacred Wood in April. The fragrances are the fourth and fifth (and last) in the Asian tales collection (see Bamboo Harmony, Water Calligraphy and Flower of Immortality). Imperial Tea and Sacred Wood were developed by perfumer Calice Becker.
Imperial Tea ~ inspired by Da Hong Pao oolong tea and a Chinese folk tale of a dying empress cured by drinking it (you can read a version here); "the authentic smell of the notes of a cup of tea freshly made", reportedly with jasmine as well.
Sacred Wood ~ inspired by the Indian tale of Savitri and Satyavan from the Mahabharata and the scent of traditional Mysore sandalwood, no longer used in perfumery due to its scarcity. Sacred Wood "recreates the sensuality of this essential oil by steaming milk accents, polished woods and warm spices".
By Kilian Imperial Tea and Sacred Wood will be available in 50 ml Eau de Parfum or in a 30 ml travel size, both refillable.
(via fragrance.org, additional information via katiechutzpah)
Update: see a review of Imperial Tea.
Thank god they’re not fruity florals 🙂 They sound enticing enough.
Yes! These really sound great to me, and I don’t usually like BK.
These sound great, want to sniff.
Me too.
These sound really wonderful. If you just forget the pricing for the bottles in that black lacquer case, the refills are actually a very good deal.
A refill is all I’m ever likely to get…
Well and since all the other houses are raising their prices By Kilian doesn’t seem as expensive anymore.
I want one of those refills with A Taste of Heaven, I don’t like the name but I love the lavender in this one.
Oh interesting, I hadn’t noticed the pricing on the travel sprays ’til you pointed this out. Could I be reading this right, are the travel sprays really priced much cheaper per ml even than the 50ml refill? How unusual.
No, in Europe the refill is cheaper. The refill retails for around €80/50ml, whereas the travel sprays are around 90€/30 ml.
Ohh yes I think I was looking at out of date pricing–Aedes seemed to have a set of travel spray refills for $75/30ml, but they’re out of stock and I don’t see them listed anywhere else. I guess $145/50ml in the U.S. is the lowest at present. Too bad, got my hopes up for a second!
I work in a store that sells some really premium tea, the quality of which I’ve never experienced as a casual drinker. One of the vendors gave me maybe ten grams of an oolong she told me would retail around $300 /lb and let me tell you, the aroma of it brewed is its own perfume, cleanly vegetal (almost like okra) with a complex floral, maybe like vanille galante or baiser vole without the musk. Anyway, now I am on the hunt for on oolong perfume. We’ll see. 🙂
That same vendor has the best jasmine pearls I’ve ever had but I don’t want to post the name because I don’t want to be construed as affiliated.
I love oolongs. I’ve never spent that much, although some of the ones I buy are pretty expensive. You can re-brew the leaves so many times that I figure it’s justified.
And we don’t have such strict rules…we don’t like astroturfing, but this is on-topic, so do tell us the name of the vendor! And where you work, if you like.
Yes, as a tea afficianado I say, please tell us 🙂
I love oolongs too, especially the greener ones. The dark ones don’t do as much for me as black teas. That particular one I was given wasn’t one we sell; same plantation but higher quality. We carry a “premium” and “super premium” of the same plantation, so called Compassionate Oolong, ($99.99 and $169.99 /lb, respectively.)
I work at Central Market, a Texas chain of grocery stores. We’re like Whole Foods, except instead of carrying the healthiest, we carry the best. 😉 I think Jessica mentioned us in a review once, mentioning our Citrus Fest that takes place in January, a few years ago.
Anyway, the tea brand is Lahaha Tea, out of California, but the founder is Chinese and she has sourced some of the best teas I’ve ever had, including the jasmine pearls. Most jasmine pearls are hard to brew, requiring very specific temperatures and brew times, but Lahaha’s are very forgiving. I’ve never tasted a tea of hers that turned bitter. They’re high priced as well, but she sells a jasmine green tea at about half the price that has the same taste, but it isn’t hand rolled (the founder told me that in China, people don’t buy pearls, that that’s a sort of American preference.)
Anyway, I don’t know about many other points of sale of the brand, but I do know we’re exclusive in Texas and that she has fewer than a dozen total points of sale. I don’t even know if she has a website set up, but it’s worth a Google.
Oops, it’s Alyssa in Austin.
Thanks, I’m going to check it out! I tend to prefer the lightly oxidized oolongs too.
Oh, please share! When I lived in Los Angeles I would go to a tea house that had the most wonderful jasmine pearls. I think one of the reasons I like Fleur de Louis is because it smells like those pearls. On a side note, they served egg salad sandwiches with eggs that had been steeped in a smoky oolong. Fabulous!
I replied to Robin above, but the brand is Lahaha. The brand is actually based in California; if you’re still there you might be able to contact them directly.
That egg salad sounds amazing. I’ve had tea soaked eggs before but never thought to make a salad.
Funny, Robin: I like plenty of BK, and these sound so very booooooring. And at least one of the first two was a tea with jasmine. I guess there’s always room for another good wood/sandalwood, but I’m not wanting for a new one. In this series, I thought Flower of Immortality was a nice peachy scent, but that was only based on a quick sniff.
The line is starting to feel a bit like it’s just cranking out as much product as possible. Five or more launches a year or so feels like too high a pace, even with limited editions and city exclusives.
Totally agree on too much product! And they’re apparently starting another series later this year. Yes, Flower of Immortality was nice, but that’s what I end up thinking of most of them — nice, don’t need it.