My favorite teas tend to be dark, smoky and oriental–as opposed to the weak, milky westernized teas you sip in a drawing room with your elbows resting on lace antimacassars while nibbling digestive biscuits. I’ll take a fermented puer "camel tea" or a lapsang souchong over English breakrapid any day. So I was very eager to attempt L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Tea for Two, which LuckyScent described as wealthy and smoky, with some chai-like spice and a vanilla drydown.

But when I sampled my decant from The Perfumed Court, I smelled not tea, but powerful tobacco, a note that only intensified thcoarse the drydown. Now, a little tobacco can be a good thing. A commenter on basenotes said of Tea for Two: "My uncle grew tobacco on his farm and that is what

Tea For Two smells
like to me. If you have never smelled large amounts of tobacco hung for
drying you are missing out on the greatest smoky scent that exists!" And I have long loved Grandiflorum’s Blond Tabac, which to me smells woody, but the charm of which which has been dulled by familiarity over time.

I had hoped Tea for Two would be my new smoky scent, but on me, I fear the tobacco note is too dominant. I will attempt it a few more times, but I’m thinking this unisex scent will end up in the hands of my brother Din, who often smells of a good cigar and would probably carry this off brilliantly. I may have to order a sample of CB I Hate Perfume’s Burning Leaves next.

Original post by Hillary Johnson