La Rhapsodie Noire
Dusita (2022)

Parfums Dusita is a brand that does its best work in the herbal-aromatic vein (see: Issara, Erawan, Le Pavillon d’Or) because the perfumer, Pissara Umavijani, brings a Thai sensibility full of exotic herbs, woods, and spices to bear on traditional Western tropes, such as the fougère or the ‘oriental’. And it is this touch that makes La Rhapsodie Noir sing.

La Rhapsodie Noire comes by its coffee note honestly, via the interplay of sunburnt lavender and sage that produces a similar effect to the topnotes of Eau Noire (Dior), minus the immortelle, which removes all danger of maple syrup. The impression is therefore of a waft of dark, fresh coffee on the air on a hillside in Southern France, rather than the sticky, burnt ‘coffee shop’ glop that plagues most coffee fragrances. It is gently herbal and aromatic rather than gourmand, which is what makes it a really elegant wear.

Belying the complex notes list, I find this fragrance to be almost stylishly simple. The grainy coffee darkness loosens gradually into a creamy, medicinal tonka bean paste, itself quite aromatic and rugged. It is ultimately similar to other aromatic-herbal tonka bean fragrances I love, like Eau des Baux (L’Occitane) and Lothair (Penhaligon’s), their main charm lying in that tug of war between the spicy vanillic warmth of tonka and the insistently sharp prickle of aromatic notes (cypress, lavender, black tea). La Rhapsodie Noire is a more refined distant cousin of these scents, but a member of the family nonetheless.