As Valentine’s Day approaches in February, people who have fallen down the perfume rabbit hole start getting restless. This year, instead of chocolate, I’m buying the scent of chocolate, they tell themselves. Rather than eating chocolate, they are trying to become chocolate (or so I imagine). For anyone who feels that way, let me first offer some words from Alber Elbaz, once hailed as a second Yves Saint Laurent, whose extraordinary talent shone at Lanvin.
The only thing I asked Frédéric Malle (in Japanese) (when making Superstitious) was that we should not make a chocolate or vanilla scent, even if that was the trend. If we could not eat food, if it were forbidden, we might say, let’s make a perfume that smells of chocolate! But if you want chocolate, you can just go and buy it.
Alber Elbaz
Everything that follows is for you, if even Elbaz’s warning cannot stop you. Welcome to Le Chercheur de Parfum’s celebration, Salon du Chocolat Parfum!
There is nothing chocolate cannot solve!
Kilian Hennessy
Skip straight to chocolate perfumes
An Introduction to Chocolate
What is chocolate in the first place? Surely learning about its origins will make us love it even more!?
The History of Chocolate
Cacao, the raw material for chocolate, is said to have also been used by the Olmec civilization in Mexico around 1500 BCE. Also known as “the food of the gods,” it was very expensive.
In the Aztec civilization of the 16th century, people are said to have ground cacao beans and drunk them with corn flour added, or flavored with vanilla and spices. This was called xocolatl. Fueguia’s Xocoatl is a fragrance inspired by it.
For a long time, cacao also seems to have been regarded as possessing mystical powers and used chiefly for offerings and as currency.
Three hundred years after chocolate reached Spain in the 16th century, a Dutchman in the early 19th century wondered, “Could we make xocolatl easier to drink?” His name was Van Houten. Yes, the founder of that familiar cocoa-powder company. By removing the cocoa butter (the fat), he made cocoa powder and created a more drinkable xocolatl.
A Swiss man named Daniel Peter used Van Houten’s technique to combine condensed milk with chocolate, creating delicious chocolate to eat: milk chocolate. His neighbor was Henri Nestlé, the founder of the Nestlé company we all know.
Incidentally, chocolate is said to have reached Japan during the Edo period.
What Is Chocolate?
Chocolate is made from cacao beans, the seeds inside the fruit of the cacao tree. This fruit, called a cacao pod, is covered in a hard outer shell 1 cm or more thick. Inside are 30–40 seeds (cacao beans), surrounded by sweet flesh called pulp.
The cacao beans are removed from the pod together with the pulp and fermented as they are. This fermentation process creates the precursors of chocolate’s aroma. The beans are fermented and dried, their skins removed, then roasted and ground; the result is called cacao nibs. These are ground still more finely into a paste and solidified to make cacao mass.
Cocoa butter is then obtained by pressing the fat out of the cacao mass. It is an extract of vegetable fat that accounts for approximately 55% of cacao mass. The solid material left after a certain amount of this fat has been removed from cacao mass is called cocoa cake. When cocoa cake is crushed into a fine powder, it becomes cocoa powder.
Types of Chocolate
Chocolate is made from cocoa solids, sugar, milk and other ingredients. Its name changes according to how much of the cocoa-derived ingredients mentioned above (cacao nibs, cacao mass, cocoa butter, cocoa cake and cocoa powder) it contains, how much milk it contains, what other ingredients are used, and its production method and shape. Standards also vary slightly from country to country (the classifications below are those used in Japan). This means that in perfume, too, the kind of chocolate being evoked should make a subtle difference.
Types of Chocolate by Composition
Dark Chocolate
There is essentially no clear-cut standard for dark chocolate, but it generally refers to chocolate with no milk and 40%–60% cacao mass. It is also called bitter chocolate, black chocolate, sweet chocolate or plain chocolate. You can taste cacao’s distinctive bitterness and astringency and enjoy its aroma. It does not necessarily mean a cocoa content of 70% or 90%.
Milk Chocolate
Rules include a cocoa content of at least 21% and milk solids of at least 14%. This is a common type of everyday chocolate, with an easy-to-enjoy flavor.
White Chocolate
This is cream-colored chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 21%, using only translucent cocoa butter for its cocoa component. Because it does not use cacao nibs or cacao mass, which have a high proportion of cacao, it has little bitterness.
Types by Production Method and Shape
Chocolate Bars
These are flat slabs of chocolate, called chocolate bars in English-speaking countries and tablettes in France. Liquid chocolate is poured into a mold, cooled and set. When the chocolate forms a shell filled with jam, fruit or nuts, it is specifically called shell chocolate.
Nama Chocolate
This is chocolate with fresh cream or spirits worked into it, giving it a high moisture content and a smooth, melting texture. In Europe and North America, it is called ganache and used as the center of chocolate bonbons. In fact, eating this ganache on its own (as nama chocolate) seems to be a custom that is common only in Japan.
Praliné
Praliné is made by combining caramelized sugar with roasted almonds or hazelnuts, grinding the mixture into a paste, and mixing this into chocolate.
Gianduja
An Italian specialty made by mixing chocolate with roasted hazelnuts ground into a paste and sugar (without caramelizing it).
Marzipan
A paste made by grinding unroasted almonds and mixing them with sugar (without caramelizing it).
Chocolate Bonbons
Bite-sized chocolates with a filling such as ganache inside a chocolate shell. Bonbon is a French word for a small confection coated in chocolate or sugar.
As well as ganache, the centers may contain praliné, marzipan or gianduja.
Truffles
A type of chocolate bonbon, these are spherical chocolates made to resemble truffle fungi. Their outsides are often dusted with cocoa powder to evoke the earth clinging to a freshly dug-up truffle.
Rochers
Another type of chocolate bonbon, named after the French word for “rock.” Almonds and similar ingredients give them a craggy appearance.
Orangettes
Narrow strips of orange peel that are candied and coated in chocolate.
Dragées
Confections made by coating almonds in chocolate and sugar.
The History of Chocolate Perfumes
When did chocolate scents first find their way into perfume? Perfume lovers might immediately think of Thierry Mugler’s Angel. But Angel was not actually the first perfume to use a chocolate note.
The First Chocolate Scent
The first fragrance in perfume history to use the scent of chocolate is said to have been Goutal (in Japanese)’s Eau de Charlotte (Goutal Paris, 1982, Annick Goutal). It was created for Annick’s daughter Charlotte. The cacao was added to lend sophistication, so this is not a syrupy-sweet gourmand.
Ten years later came Angel (Thierry Mugler, 1992, Yves de Chiris and Olivier Cresp), the fragrance that would establish the gourmand category.
A Devil Named “Angel”
Angel, which prompted Luca Turin to call it the Shalimar of the 1990s, began as a project to create Thierry Mugler’s first perfume. Interestingly, the founder Thierry believed that “perfume should not be tied solely to fashion, because a style will one day become outdated.” The decision was therefore made to create a scent that would one day become a classic, rather than one tied to a passing trend or fashion.
For me, personality and character matter more than fashion. My style projects the image of a woman who is innocent and gentle, yet strong. That is why I called this perfume Angel. An angel can be good or bad.
Thierry Mugler
The fragrance was developed to be a scent with a sense of warmth in contrast to the coolness suggested by its sky-blue bottle. The gourmand idea came from Thierry himself.
What I want is something delicious that makes your mouth water, something that reminds me of childhood. The smell of a fair, cotton candy, little cakes, chocolate, caramel: that sort of scent.
Thierry Mugler
Yves de Chiris and Olivier Cresp, who were at Quest at the time, listened to his stories and preferences as they developed a scent to match his vision.
For me, Angel brings together the warmth and woodiness of patchouli with bitterness and sweetness. Bitterness and sweetness are the key words. Bitterness was needed to balance the sugary notes of chocolate and candied apple and create contrast.
Olivier Cresp
The Angel that emerged opens with a celestial note of bergamot (in Japanese) and Hedione (in Japanese), as though an angel were flying through the sky. A delicious note created by mingling berries and honey then brings out the angel’s charm. Before long, the angel plants a chocolate-and-vanilla kiss on your cheek, conjured by patchouli (in Japanese) and vanilla. Once you are spellbound, its true, devilish nature begins to emerge.
Angel body-care products are also sold in its home market.
Angel’s revolution lay not so much in bringing the already existing concept of gourmand to the forefront of perfumery as in breaking down the invisible wall between flavor (in Japanese) and perfume, taste and scent, and bringing into perfume the same impulse we experience as appetite.
Gérald Ghislain (founder of Histoires de Parfums)
In 2017, to mark its 40th anniversary, La Maison du Chocolat released chocolates in collaboration with Thierry Mugler’s Angel. They reportedly used patchouli, an unusual ingredient in chocolate.
Information from the French site at the time
How to Create the Scent of Chocolate
The aroma of cacao beans already consists of hundreds of molecules. Chemical reactions during roasting then triple the number of aromatic components. Chocolate’s smell can therefore be described as a complex product shaped by human intervention.
• Isobutyl phenylacetate
• Vanillin (in Japanese)Simply setting out a few fragrance materials like this is enough to express the complex scent of chocolate. More than anything, this is proof that perfumers are magicians.
For a “dark-chocolate flavor,” try adding patchouli (in Japanese).
Jean-Claude Ellena
For melt-in-the-mouth “ganache,” add a little civet (in Japanese).
For “orangettes,” confections enclosing orange peel, add the scent of orange peel.
Add spearmint (in Japanese) and it becomes an “After Eight” chocolate.
To evoke “cocoa powder,” I recommend orris concrete (in Japanese).
Notable Chocolate Perfumes
This is the part you wanted, isn’t it? Thank you for waiting.
Based on the materials used and the way the perfumes actually smell, I have put together a selection that I find particularly wonderful, though it is, of course, subjective. I hope it gives you some ideas. I have left out perfumes in which cacao is merely one ingredient among others.
Dark Chocolate
Borneo 1834 (Serge Lutens, 2005, Christopher Sheldrake)
Xocoatl (Fueguia 1833, 2010, Julian Bedel)
Dark Chocolate (Demeter, 2013)
Noir Aphrodisiaque (Kilian, 2016, Calice Becker)
Muskara Cacao (Fueguia 1833, 2018, Julian Bedel)
Chocolate & Florals
1969 (Histoires de Parfums, 2001, Gérald Ghislain)
Cacao Azteque (Perris Monte Carlo, 2017, Mathieu Nardin)
Chocolate & Rose
100% LOVE (S-Perfume, 2003, Sophia Grojsman)
Chocolate & Fruit
Chocolat (Il Profvmo, 1997, Silvana Casoli)
Elixir Charnel Gourmand Coquin (Guerlain, 2008, Christine Nagel)
Truffles (with a Fresh Floral Center)
Black Orchid (Tom Ford, 2006, David Apel and Pierre Negrin)
White Chocolate
Iris Ganache (Guerlain, 2007, Thierry Wasser)
Orangettes
Chocolate Greedy (Montale, 2007, Pierre Montale)
A Little Extra
If you are looking for a perfume for the Valentine’s season beyond chocolate, how about gourmand or black-tea fragrances?
The Real Chocolate
There are so many brands I would love to recommend, but I have narrowed them down to chocolates whose looks, taste and aroma you can enjoy♪
MAISON CACAO
Founded in Kamakura in 2015, Maison Cacao is devoted not only to flavor: surely the quality of its packaging and website design would bring a smile to every woman’s face. Compare its website with those of department stores or traditional shops, and its stylishness is immediately apparent. Simply visiting the site is sure to pique your curiosity about the flavors and make you want to try the entire collection.
Maison Cacao’s cacao is grown in Colombia, and each chocolate has its “moisture and air content adjusted to suit the amount of saliva produced by Japanese people.” The brand also collaborates with artists, and I think the beautiful packaging must stand out even among the displays at department-store events.
Its nama chocolates in particular use outstanding ingredients, and the aromas that travel through your nose after they melt in your mouth may well leave you in bliss. There are annual collaborations with whiskies such as Yamazaki and Hibiki, as well as seasonal flavors. The variety of flavors is almost overwhelming.
Shop at Hankyu
Shop at Takashimaya
Visit the official website
Jacques Genin
Jacques Genin is the chocolatier that collaborated on Kilian (in Japanese)’s Paris-exclusive perfume Noir Aphrodisiaque. It is a chocolate brand so renowned that there is said to be no chocolate connoisseur who has not heard of it, yet it has no official shop in Japan. These rare treats come around once a year for Valentine’s Day, and lately have been available only at Takashimaya.
Jacques Genin is said to have learned chocolate-making independently. What distinguishes the chocolates is the use of ingredients that resemble a perfumer’s palette, from jasmine (in Japanese) to tonka bean (in Japanese), coriander, rose (in Japanese) and mint (in Japanese). Only a few kinds arrive in Japan each year, but the official French website offers a wider variety at somewhat more accessible prices.
Shop at Takashimaya
Visit the official French website
If I could shop in only one place in one city, I would choose the Marais in Paris. I love visiting the chocolatier Jacques Genin there.
Kilian Hennessy
Chocolaterie HISASHI
The celebrated Chocolaterie HISASHI is a dream destination for chocolate lovers. Surely many of you have thought you would like to try it someday? It occasionally appears at Valentine’s events, though perhaps not this year? But above all, visiting HISASHI’s shop is an experience on an entirely different level. There are so many chocolates, baked sweets and cakes that you cannot buy even from its online shop♪
Owner Hisashi Onobayashi joined Club Harie, went on to win numerous competitions from 2010 onward, and rose as high as overall runner-up at a world championship. Onobayashi’s chocolates strike an exquisite balance between elegant looks, refined flavor and a touch of humor, bringing a smile to both giver and recipient. I will never forget the delight of tasting Mona Chocolat for the first time, but the cakes are in a class of their own, too!
Nakamura Chocolate
Nakamura Chocolate was established in Perth in 2010 by chocolatier Yuki Nakamura, who lives in Australia and was captivated by its local flavors. The flavors created by bringing Japanese and Australian ingredients together in harmony will surely offer a moment of bliss. Above all, these chocolates, with their Japanese elegance and designs carefully worked out down to the smallest detail, lift your spirits just to look at them.
Many of the ingredients are the sort used in perfume, making this a brand I would especially like perfume lovers to taste.
Visit the official website
Shop at Takashimaya
Shop at Daimaru Matsuzakaya
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