From bottle to trail
Spritzzzzzzzz!
Immediately titillated, your nostrils quiver with pleasure. Fresh, tasty, delightful, all sorts of images pop into your over-stimulated memory. You want to say, “It reminds me of…,” but the references bump into each other and cancel each other out before you can finish your thought… Something never-before smelled? No, you’re sure you recognize… And… To the tune of… There’s something familiar about it, known and even well-known, but so well composed that the cat’ll get your tongue. Except for the laurel of course, an imperial crown of laurel, laid on the heads of victors, or used sparingly (under the name of bay leaf) in the best Mediterranean recipes. A lively, agile bay leaf that sneaks in between the sparkling citrus notes and the bitterness of a slightly orangey bark that’s already exciting our taste buds.
You get a strange, unidentified feeling in your mouth – one that whets your appetite and sharpens your thirst for an iced tea or an effervescent cocktail – but it slips away as soon as you try to put your finger on it. The alchemy continues in a display of plant nuances: shiny, crisp leaf green; luminous, tart lemon green; sap green with a sweet-wood effect when licorice, a skilled illusionist, places an aniseed veil over its fresh exuberance. Some people won’t notice anything, or barely more than a few sparks, so artfully are the fireworks arranged. Not exactly a full-fledged flavor, but much more than a bland cup of herbal tea, Laurier-Reglisse pulls off the challenge of keeping us in an unexpected space somewhere between smell and taste, ‘twixt your nose and your mouth… Yet the only “gourmand” thing about it is the list of main ingredients, and while it does have a “tasty” facet, it’s never simplistic. The trail is refined without mawkishness or concessions to simplicity, delicate, with just enough relief to call forth a new impregnation. The scent is addictive, consider yourselves warned, and though it may not last beyond the summer, it will still leave you some lovely scented memories.