Reviews of New Haarlem by Bond No. 9

Lavender coffee
Roasted to some perfection
Beyond mere gourmet

Galactostarstuff
Spiced to some unique pleasance
By your chef Maurice

Welcome to New York
What brings you to this taste of
Future memories?

Beautifully complex fragrance.

Perfect for the autumn and winter; on me, this is a close-to-the skin fragrance, which would be great for interacting with people in close quarters ;) One gets a warm, fuzzy feeling smelling this fragrance so I can imagine being curled up with company by the fireplace on a cold night.

I don't get that much of a coffee note from this, rather a syrupy sweet - quite medicinal - scent with vanilla/tonka undertones and hint of cinnamon. It certainly does not smell like freshly ground coffee to me; a milky, overly sweet cup of coffee if anything.

Just got a bottle of this hard to find juice and WOW I'm blown away. Being a huge Roucel fan to begin with, I was fairly certain I'd love it. I get slight coffee, burnt sugar, caramel, and maple syrup balanced with lavender and woods. The lavender and woods keep it grounded and almost masculine even though it has so many gourmand notes. An absolute stunner and one of Roucel's best in my opinion.

I love coffee..but this..this is 3 sprays of headache. You wanna headache? It gets cloying and over the top in no time. Spray more than 3 to get a stuffing migraine. The coffee is on the last part..too subtle and stick close to skin..nobody will notice it. And the coffee isnt like real coffee at all..its like a simulation that doesnt work. Dont blind buy this. Not for everyone.

I love maple syrup. The idea of a fragrance that smells like pancakes and coffee sounded amazing to me, so I knew I had to give this a try. And to be honest, it doesn't disappoint. It's a lovely scent.

I don't know if the performance is quite as strong as some make it out to be. Upon reading that it was pretty nuclear I skimped a bit on my spraying to eke another wearing or two out of my sample. I put a spritz (from a small 1ml sample) on each wrist and one on the neck. It doesn't project too strongly, the longevity is there, but on me it seems to sit pretty close to the skin. I don't mind terribly as I find myself going back to sniff at my wrist periodically throughout the day.

My biggest grievance is that they took this one away now that I love it! The only bottles I see available are on Amazon and most of the Ebay decanters have sketchy (ie. seemingly fake positive) reviews. I managed to order a 10ml from a seemingly legit decanting website. I'll have to see for sure if it's the real deal once it comes in.

Amazing!!

I will state for the record that I am not a massive fan of the house of Bond or gourmand fragrances in general. NH is most definitely the exception. Amazing gourmand! Yes, we have the coffee & syrup. But there's more here. I don't get the pancake house that others talk about. I think it's the lavender that gives in an edge. Just adds a touch of class. Definitely makes a statement and stands out from the crowd.

When you don't overspray, it's so soothing. 8 hours later, you still know it's there. An urban gourmand, reminding you that no matter how busy a city street can be in the morning, a good coffee shop is always a calming place, a retreat. Sure, when you hear "lavender coffee" you could imagine some kind of hipster barista drink. Quite not the case. In fact, with New Haarlem I could never imagine something eatabble or drinkable, although the notes are technically there. More like the air of it: Starbucks on a busy corner, an experience both solitary and shared, serene and upliftng at the same time.

This smells so good, I want to spray it on a plate and eat it. It is a GREAT night-time, bedtime, dating (at home) scent. It's the stuff you would wear in a cozy environment like at a single's retreat to draw ALL of the attention, or in the cabin with a fire going. It gets compliments even on paper. I can't imagine wearing it in an office setting unless you're "on the hunt".

Darkly sweet, slightly syrupy, herbal lavender gourmand...

I do like this one. A sweet yet very herbal and dark lavender based, syrupy gourmand fragrance. It's very nice. I get the coffee and lavender, but that isn't a combination I haven't seen before. In fact, New Haarlem reminds me a lot of Eau Noire from the Collection Privé by Dior. The lavender and coffee, and the note of immortelle, were central to that fragrance.

Here it's taken in a slightly more gourmand direction. I do get the maple syrup reference. I find the whole fragrance on the edge of gourmand (as in it could be considered a gourmand whilst also trying to be a fougère).

The lasting power on this is phenomenal. Very good value for money I would say going by the performance. Again, the price is not cheap but I can see the quality here (also Maurice Roucel is a master perfumer of a calibre second to none). He's done a fantastic job with this one. I could see this working great in the cooler weather for sure. Good stuff!

I don't gel well usually with Bond No 9 scents, but one has to give credit where it's due. New Haarlem, by Maurice Roucel, is a high quality gourmand evocative of coffee and coffeeshops. It is not abstract, but more realistic. However, unlike most other artsy coffee fragrances, New Haarlem eschews anything to do with roasted coffee beans, and goes straight for lattes and cappuccinos - the pleasant, sweet aroma that draws in the crowds. Tonka and vanilla contribute to the sweetness, while there is also a slight edgy, bitter aroma, perhaps a sense of astringency. I imagine this is referencing the bitterness of coffee and coffee beans; I find this aspect to be of paramount importance, as it keeps things interesting and sustains my interest, and at the same time distinguishes New Haarlem from the hordes of unremarkable simple saccharine perfumes.

New Haarlem has a significant presence. It lasts several hours on my skin with good projection and offers a very nice sillage. It's hard to imagine New Haarlem being wearable when it is not cold. However, in the winter it blooms beautifully and is rather pleasurable. It can even be a mood lifter on cold mornings. New Haarlem isn't complex or complicated, but is a simple straightforward gourmand done right. It's not as sophisticated as Dries van Noten par Malle, as abstract as Eau Noire or as extreme as Jeux de Peau, but it has a spontaneous beauty and mass appeal. Easy to wear and easier to like.

3.5/5

Gorgeous fragrance. Kind of smoky meets musky. Burnt coffee is the prominent note which blends with the vanilla, tonka and amber. Not for everyone but I especially find it unique and beautiful. I could wear New Haarlem everyday.

Finally reviewing this on a day off following the Eagles Super Bowl victory, Bond No. 9 New Haarlem, for me, epitomizes the sweet brunch vibe, with heavy notes of coffee, amber, and vanilla comprising much of my experience of it.

Certainly the wildcard note, if it can be called that, is lavender, which mixes peculiarly with the coffee to give the fragrance a rather mysterious yet sophisticated edge, as in Armani Attitude, wherein both notes are even more front-and-center without the gourmand influence of vanilla.

Cedar further rounds on the mix, with tonka providing its creamy yet slightly powdery nuances. Overall, the experience of the fragrance is nearly a full gourmand, the lavender providing the sole vestige of something outside simply eating coffee and pancakes, and New Haarlem is all the more brilliant a composition for involving the lavender, which really is the keystone of the whole fragrance.

Next to Andy Warhol, New Haarlem is the most powerful Bond No. 9 fragrance I've tried to date, with excellent projection and longevity, just as loud as I want it to be for how much I love it.

The only downside is its peculiarity, that someone averse to coffee or sweet scents will likely not be attracted to it, but as I love both, I'm smitten with it, and I wear it occasionally for a nice breakfast or brunch occasion.

9 out of 10

My first review on Basenotes. Bond isn't one of my faves but I have to say, I really like New Haarlem (despite the misspelling). I get all sorts of hungry after spraying this on. Smells like the back room of an iHOP, but in a good way. All in all I like it. Not good for a date but great for a night home alone in front of the tv.

Being number 12 in a series of 16 reviews on critically acclaimed and noteworthy scents.

The top notes of New Haarlem consisted of a combination of coffee and lavender spliced together in such a clumsy fashion that I feared the worst. As I have had cause to say before, the end result smelled very much like the medicinal odour of calomine lotion. Being used to the seamless connection of lavender and coffee in Yohji Homme, this by comparison seemed like - what's the saying? - attaching an axle to an orange.

However, as time moved on, things turned out for the better. Those that have pointed out a similarity with Dior's Eau Noire are spot on, for while New Haarlem omits the curry leaf note and includes a much stronger, more aggressively roasted coffee aroma, the two are very close indeed. They share many common ingredients, and so the similarities in accords, and in performance for that matter, should perhaps not come as a surprise.

So, once we get to the dry down, exposed skin gives off a straight coffee accord that is between a narrower version of Eau Noire and an amplified version of Yohji, while sprays to the chest bring out the roasted aspect of coffee along with something like the "pancakes and syrup" effect that this scent is famed for. There is also something of a green note here, again, extremely redolent of Eau Noire.

While I would buy Eau Noire in a straight fight between the two, if money were no object, that appears to have been discontinued. Given that the medical astringency of New Haarlem soon wears off, but retains what the pleasing aspects of a good gourmand are for me at least, I can unhesitatingly award New Haarlem a positive review and leave it on the wish list until such time as the idea of an unashamed gourmand in my collection becomes irresistible.

New Haarlem is probably one of Bond No. 9's most iconic fragrances, along with Chinatown (on the female side). It's a grotesque, “extreme” gourmand that pushes the envelope with a set of roasted, burned, and syrupy notes that walk the line between cloying/intense and appetizing/comforting.

I like extreme gourmands a lot – they are impolite and they don't pussyfoot around with the idea of food as fragrance. They don't make any apologies. Done right, they are both satisfying and cartoonishly awful in equal measure. In this category, I place Jeux de Peau, Cadavre Exquise, A*Men, and yep – New Haarlem.

To my nose, New Haarlem smells like roasted black coffee beans over a soapy, aromatic lavender cologne. The lavender here has the same sun-roasted, “garrigue” effect I notice in Eau Noire, that intensely woody, aromatic aroma of crushed lavender buds which is what creates the roasted coffee impression.

It is certainly a very dark and woody coffee smell - very attractive and distinctive. I can't think of anything else that smells as close to real coffee as this does. I pick up on a creamy vanilla sweetness later on, but I can't say that I perceive any syrupy notes at all. And I certainly don't pick up the famous pancake accord.

To my nose, this is all coffee, intensely black and roasted at first, then smoothing out into sweet, milky coffee in the drydown, draped over a soapy, aromatic barbershop fougere. It strikes me as incredibly masculine. I like it very much, but find it too butch for me to pull off comfortably.

My husband, on the other hand, had a completely different experience. That is to say, it smelled the same on his skin as it did on mine, but his understanding of New Haarlem jives far more closely with the majority opinion of the scent on Basenotes and elsewhere. Without telling him what the fragrance notes were, I sprayed it on him and asked him to tell me what it smelled like. This is what he said:

“Nuts, specifically pecans, and that Danish pastry you like with the pecans. There is a lot of syrup here. Yes, it smells exactly like the bakery where I get the croissants and pecan Danish for you guys at the weekend. It is like wearing a pastry. This is far too sweet. I could maybe like this if I were feeling hungry and wanted to smell something a little sweet. But I wouldn't wear this, really. It's way too sweet.”

New Haarlem smells like a plate of pancakes and syrup. I went through 3 sample vials before eventually pulling the trigger on the smaller bottle for 91 USD. I'm so happy I finally did! This scent is a must for people who love gourmand fragrances.

When dabbing from the sample vials, I was lucky to get 3 hours before it became a skin scent. I haven't been wearing the juice from my bottle long enough to report its longevity, but the 5 sprays I put on a few hours ago are much stronger than the dabs I've previously used. I feel like the projection is about 4 feet and the potency is better than the samplers.

TLDR; If you like the gourmand category and also like the smell of a syrup-y breakfast then this is right up your alley. Because this one is unique in my opinion, I'm giving it a 10/10.

IHOP. For those in parts of the world that are unfamiliar with IHOP, New Haarlem is what an unhealthy breakfast smells like in America.

This is what Mr. Roger's sweater would smell like.

Wonderful fall fragrance. Nothing much to add to the other reviews but this really does smell like drinking a cup of sweet coffee at a pancake house. Coffee, waffle, maple syrup and a ton of sweetness. Warm and inviting and virtually impossible to dislike. Projects like a beast and lasts and lasts. Single note fragrance with zero drydown but the nose never gets bored and it never feels cloying.

Check out ck one shock - its way cheaper and it has the same vibe going on. Any way, new Haarlem should be in everyone's collections - gourmand done right and can be worn any season by anybody.

Top marks!

Definitely had my phase with this one. It's a powdery syrup-cinnamon-coffee fragrance with a lot of cedar. It's strong, last a while and is nice, but eventually I got kinda sick of it. Not very versatile but has its place in an already established collection.

3/5

If I wanted to smell like this I would go to the closest Starbucks, get a cafe au lait, put tons of sugar and vanilla and pour it all over me.
I like the smell of coffee, but not ON me, capiche?

A tad disappointed with this fragrance. I agree that the opening is very much coffee with hints of lavender and a cacao note.

But that's all the opening. 3-4 hours in, the mid and base notes is more about tonka, amber and vanilla than coffee, which is what the reviews here rave about. Longevity is decent at 6-8 hours, not the beast that people talk about here.

Looking to sell this, used 10-12 sprays, if anyone is interested and is a fan.

Its good, just not great.

PS: people smell coffee beans after sniffing numerous fragrances. No surprise that olfactory fatigue may kick in really quickly for this fragrance.

PPS: the best coffee frag I've smelt so far is Eau Noire from Dior. But that has other notes like immortelle that put me off. Anyone have recommendations?

When this scent touches my skin, the most wonderful aroma of fresh black coffee arises, soon accompanied by a firm lavender with a herbal undertone. More into the drydown there is coffee and a cedar impression, although the coffee still dominates. Now the coffee is less fresh, a touch less intense and more like cafe au lait. In the base by a great twist the addition of tonka create the atmosphere of a cafe where maple syrup wafers are served, nut never too sweet, sickly or intrusive. In the first phases added bergamot adds freshness, and in the later stages an added ambery wood note prevents the sweetness to be to dominating. Coffee prevails throughout, albeit a bit in the background in the base. Although a great gourmand scent, its lack of intrusive sweetness makes it very wearable on me. It displays good silage and projection, but the longevity on me is utterly sensational: fourteen hours have passed and I can just still catch a whiff of......(a hint: it starts with c). On me this is the gold standard in coffee fragrances, a great, not too heavy winter gourmand.

Coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, and... pancake syrup? Sure, why not! New Haarlem reminds me of the holidays. It's an amazing and potent gourmand. One or two sprays of this stuff and I'm good to go for the entire day. Has a vibe that almost sparkles.