But it was entirely appealing: warm, organic, mineral-rich. It was the smell of waiting, paid off: 40 years or more for a sandalwood tree to grow its fragrant heartwood; four months of hot, dust-blown summer in northern India before the monsoons arrive in July; a day for terra-cotta to slow-fire in a kiln.
— Read more at Making Perfume From the Rain: Indian villagers have found a way to bottle the fragrance of monsoons at The Atlantic. Hat tip to PekeFan!
Thank you for sharing this article, PekeFan and Robin! There is a wonderful company, White Lotus Aromatics, that sources and sells Indian mitti attar and it’s lovely. They also have an other-worldly blog which provides more information about creating mitti :
http://www.whitelotusblog.com/search?q=mitti+attar
http://www.whitelotusaromatics.com/product/mitti-attar
Good to know it’s lovely, thanks!
Thanks for the information and blog link Holly, and thanks for sharing the article Robin. I’m thrilled that mitti attar is available online.
I really want to try it.
Thanks so much Robin and PekeFan. So interesting. I’m going to hunt down the Nature paper.
Glad you enjoyed it!