Ingredient Guide
Overview
One of the oldest spices, cardamom belongs to the ginger family, along with ginger and turmeric. After vanilla (Japanese) and saffron (Japanese), it is also the world’s third most expensive spice.
In Egypt it was called “the seed of the angels.” Cleopatra is said to have burned cardamom to fill her palace with its scent before the arrival of her lover Mark Antony. When the Crusaders brought cardamom back to Europe, it came to be widely consumed in alcoholic drinks such as mead and hippocras.
As a fragrance material
The fruits are 2–3 cm long and contain 5–20 seeds, from which aromatic materials can be obtained after drying. As a tropical plant, it appears unable to survive low temperatures. Major growing regions include Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, and Guatemala.
There are two types of cardamom: green cardamom and the larger black (red) cardamom.
Green cardamom has a minty, aromatic scent and is used especially to flavor sweets and coffee. By contrast, black cardamom is smoky and earthy, so it is not chewed and eaten but is used in preparations such as garam masala for curries.
Oil extracted from cardamom is sweet, spicy, and balsamic. Its cooling sensation makes it a representative cold spice.
Used in a perfume, cardamom lifts the fragrance like wind filling a sail. Its scent spreads expansively and has a glacial coolness.
Jean-Claude Ellena
How does it smell in perfume?
Even with cardamom from the same origin, Guatemala, the extraction method changes the expression of its scent. Essential oil distilled from the seeds is highly penetrating and volatile, with a raw green character, a metallic edge, and a light fruity facet. Supercritical CO₂ extract combines a cool top reminiscent of citrus and camphor with woody support beneath. Both create a refreshing spicy outline in perfume, but the brisk clarity of the distilled oil and the woody depth of the CO₂ extract give the finished scent different dimensions.
How to Choose Cardamom Fragrances
Cardamom’s coolness feels different alongside sweet flowers than it does with bitter citrus. Mimosa and tonka make it softer, while bitter orange and pepper give it a crisper, spicier character. Your taste for sweetness helps distinguish the two.
Comparing Cardamom Fragrances
Mimosa & Cardamom Cologne (Jo Malone London)
Honeyed mimosa meets crushed cardamom. Creamy tonka, sandalwood and powdery heliotrope create a soft floral fragrance.
Cologne Bigarade (Frédéric Malle)
Bitter orange is combined with cardamom, pink pepper, hay and cedar in this cologne. Bitter citrus and spice offer a different choice from the flowers and sweetness of Mimosa & Cardamom.
Find Your Next Fragrance
To explore more perfumes, open our Fragrance Finder. Choose “Favorite fragrances & notes” on the home screen, then search in the “Favorite notes” field. Select a note you like from the results and press “Next” to continue. You can start with notes even if you do not yet have a favorite perfume.
