Queen of the Night

Whenever I smell jasmine my heart aches a little. The piercingly sweet little blossom that is full of the concentrated indolic smell of humans has a way of catching my breath.
Jasmine was really only possible to “get” when enfleurage was introduced: the apparently “disgusting” method of extracting a flower’s essence by immersing it in fat and then extracting from the mixture the pure essence using solvents. Very costly as tons of flowers are needed for just a little oil. ... (more)