Darjeeling Tea
Jo Malone London (2016)

Hmmm....I am a heavy drinker of Darjeeling Tea at home, and I'm talking brands founded in my homeland of India.

Well...I wanted to like this one, but walked away very alienated from the very thing that I consume regularly! In its own right, RTC:DT is a fruit-floral experience that is pleasant and wearable. But somewhere, things feel like they were lost in translation by the noses behind this one! :-/

Darjeeling Tea is a dark tannic experience, especially when it's drunk black. There are floral elements, but not to the extent implied in this scent. The freesia and jasmine come close, but this fragrance requires darker, deeper elements outside of floral (e.g. citrus, herbal, fruity, vegetal).

Plus, as much as I swear by cups of black Darjeeling teas on a regular basis, I am not sure that I'd want to SMELL like it, necessarily! A batch of great Darjeeling tea with its selection of fragrant notes are great to behold by eye, nose and tongue, but to be soon dissipated to make way for cookies / crumpets and other goodies that accompany it, remembered for its fragrance but not meant to wallow in. But that's just ME.

(This would not apply to me when it comes to the use of green, oolong, jade, or other tea notes, by comparison.)

So enjoy this fragrance as it is, but don't call it Darjeeling Tea! >:-)

Gorgeous, but seems more of a floral fragrance than a tea one. It's not overtly tea-like. There is a very slight fruitiness to it from the davana, which it said to smell like apricot.