An Ode to the Rose

The roses are blooming again, although this season it seems they never stopped.  I stop, however, nearly every time a bloom extends over a wrought iron gate and presents itself to me.  I am one to stop and smell the roses.

I also stopped to collect those rose petals as they fell.  I kept collecting them until I had enough to create a small amount of cologne.  The scent of rose deepens and becomes a little powdery or dusty when they dry. I'll be making more with the second seasonal blooms. I have freshly dried sweet annie and lavender from my garden for the brew as well.

Along with roses I used vetiver root, lavender, sweet annie and dried orange peel. It has a smokey, sweet, complex aroma, something worth stopping for.

You can see these and other botanical colognes and perfumes on...

Etsy

Two New Colognes and Some Further Experiments

This year's Cologne Experiments are filtered, bottled, labeled, photographed and posted.  It was a long process but I'm happy to have all of the bottles I collected this summer (and scrubbed and sterilized) filled with my fragrant elixirs.

This year I made two new colognes, Eau Who and Noir, as well as tweaked the recipes on Florida Water, Violet Water and Bay Rum.  Eau Who is actually a re-creation that I worked on last summer in an attempt to replicate the classic cologne 4711.  This year it came out better than ever, I'm very pleased with it, so designed a whole new label for it.  It is no longer an "experiment" but a formula I'll be repeating.

I also finished Noir which has been coming along for a few years.  Every year I strain it and add more to it so it is a triple strength formula.  It's dark, rich and full bodied.

Bay Rum and Florida Water also got a bit of a makeover.  The Bay Rum is made with bayberry leaves and berries from the beaches of Brooklyn, as well as hand-dried orange peels and fresh herbs and spices.  Florida Water is composed of my own grown sweet woodruff and lavender as well as freshly ground spices.  Bay Rum is bottled in vintage amber apothecary bottles and Florida Water in green medicine bottles.

I love this process of making botanical colognes, I hope you enjoy the results of my experiments!

Mystery Found Fragrance

While hunting for bottles on the beach last month I came across this tightly capped mysterious bottle filled with liquid.  I opened it right then and there and smelled a faint floral fragrance amidst the brackish seawater.  I tucked it in my bag and proceeded to scavenge and only opened it later when I was home and sorting through my finds.  In the comfort of my home it smells more like dirty seawater than heavenly floral but still a faint trace of its original contents remains.  The sediment on the bottom could be fragrant matter that separated from the alcohol once water was introduced.  Or it could simply be debris from the ocean floor.  The bottle has no markings and is such an industry standard design that it could be almost anything.  Mystery indeed.

Beach Bottles

I had some good luck collecting bottles on the beach this year.  Most of them get scrubbed clean, sterilized and bottle up my cologne experiments.  Some of them end up as spice jars, medicine jars, liquor bottles and some are just for the love of collecting bottles.  These are some of the treasures I found this summer.

Time Again to Tincture

Colognes and tinctures brewing in my studio

I don't know what it is about summer but it's then that I start trying to capture the fragrances around me in tinctured form.  Maybe it's because I prefer lighter fragrances in the summer, when I switch from heavy perfumes to a splash of cologne instead.  There's something old fashioned about an after bath splash and I thought so even as a teenager in the 70's with the lilac cologne I liberally applied after each nightly bath.

Last summer I had some very good luck tincturing some of the dried herbs, flowers, roots, barks and berries that I've been collecting.  Over the past year I've collected quite a bit more plant material to experiment with.  I've not only collected plants in the park and from my community garden but also collected some from a couple of reputable herb companies.  The first was Dandelion Botanical Company.  My original intent with this order was the accumulation of the necessary ingredients for making bitters.  Not surprisingly I couldn't resist ordering a few other scented materials such as osmanthus flowers and sarasparilla bark.  Recently I received another order of herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs, a package I waited anxiously for which included such luxuries as tonka beans and meadowsweet blossoms.

Another heat wave had me conjuring up cooling and fragrant elixirs to calm the heat-addled spirits.  My new materials had me quite inspired and I made a list of them categorizing them by top, middle and bottom note, just as I would if I were making a perfume.  From there I jotted down some ideas and began blending.  My mortar and pestle were put to good use (that always makes me feel like a real apothecary).  They've been brewing for a month now and today they're being strained off and I'll soon be bottling them up for sale.

My favorite so far is Swamp Water which I dreamt up thinking about the bayou and tall grasses, night air thick with heady florals and sweet tea.  I also made a fougere, my latest obsession, using sweet woodruff, tonka beans, patchouli, jasmine, cassia and lavender.  Eau de la Who is inspired by my guitar hero, Pete Townshend, who I learned wore the classic 4711 when he went onstage.  I plan on sending him some.

The Bitters Experiment

After macerating for over six weeks I finally decanted my bitters and have been enjoying them in seltzer and cocktails.  I recently had a delicious Manhattan using Woodland Bitters, the brew adding a woodsy complexity to the libation.  I think the Cherry Hazelnut are my favorite and I look forward to another Manhattan using it.

Cherry Hazelnut Bitters

1/2 cup lightly toasted and skinned hazelnuts
1/2 cup dried tart or sour cherries
2 tablespoons devil's club root
1/2 teaspoon schizandra berries
1/2 teaspoon wild cherry bark
1/2 teaspoon cinchona bark
1/2 teaspoon cassia chips
1/4 teaspoon chopped dried orange peel
3 star anise
2 cups 101-proof bourbon, or more as needed

Macerate six weeks and decant.   The original recipe (taken from Brad Thomas Parsons wonderful book, "Bitters") suggests decanting after two weeks and retaining the solids to be boiled in one cup of water over high heat and returning the filtered water into the original brew.  He also suggests adding 2 tablespoons of rich syrup.  I found these extra steps tedious so just left it to macerate longer and I'm quite happy with the results.

Making Bitters

Edible Brooklyn, in their recent alcohol issue, said that everyone in Brooklyn has to make bitters, it's one of the rules.  It's true that I know an inordinate amount of people who make bitters (and beer, mead, hot sauce, play the ukelele, the accordion, etc.).  Bitters are a Very Big Thing in these parts and they're taken very seriously.

Traditionally they're considered medicine and used as a digestive tonic for the occasional upset of overeating.  In the Victorian era they found their way into cocktails.  Once the Manhattan was invented they were assured their place in every bartender's arsenal.

After doing a bit of research online I found a few recipes I wanted to try.  I was recommended to try the Dandelion Botanical Company for my bittering herbs and flavoring agents (I would also recommend Mountain Rose Herbs).  My intention was to follow a few recipes and then continue to experiment on my own.  The primary bittering herb is gentian root, the stuff that made Angostura so famous.  I also purchased chinchona bark, the principal ingredient in creating tonic water (another experiment for later), sarasparilla, devil's club root, black walnut leaf and wild cherry bark.  (The catalog had other things I just couldn't resist ordering including sandalwood powder, patchouli leaf and osmanthus flowers - yet another project).

The recipe I settled on, amongst others, was Woodland Bitters.  I loved the idea of the earthy devil's club root with wild cherry bark and toasted nuts.  I also made a classic Angostura style bitters as well as Cherry Hazelnut Bitters.  If I didn't think I'd be inundated with bitters for the rest of my life I'd be experimenting with many variations (figs, citrus, cranberry, wormwood, etc.), and it's nowhere near Christmas where I could at least hand them out as presents.

              Woodland Bitters

1. 2 cups overproof bourbon (such as Wild Turkey 101)
2. 1 cup pecans, toasted
3. 1 cup walnuts, toasted
4. 4 cloves
5. Two 3-inch cinnamon sticks
6. 1 whole nutmeg, cracked
7. 1 vanilla bean, split
8. 2 tablespoons devil's club root
9. 1 tablespoon cinchona bark
10. 1 tablespoon chopped black walnut leaf
11. 1 tablespoon wild cherry bark
12. 1/2 teaspoon cassia chips
13. 1/2 teaspoon gentian root
14. 1/2 teaspoon sarsaparilla root
15. 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1. In a 1-quart glass jar, combine all of the ingredients except the syrup. Cover and shake well. Let stand in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks, shaking the jar daily.
2. Strain the infused alcohol into a clean 1-quart glass jar through a cheesecloth-lined funnel. Squeeze any infused alcohol from the cheesecloth into the jar; reserve the solids. Strain the infused alcohol again through new cheesecloth into another clean jar to remove any remaining sediment. Cover the jar and set aside for 1 week.
3. Meanwhile, transfer the solids to a small saucepan. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes; let cool completely. Pour the liquid and solids into a clean 1-quart glass jar. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 week, shaking the jar once daily.
4. Strain the water mixture through a cheesecloth-lined funnel set over a clean 1-quart glass jar; discard the solids. If necessary, strain again to remove any remaining sediment. Add the infused alcohol and the syrup. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 3 days. Pour the bitters through a cheesecloth-lined funnel or strainer and transfer to glass dasher bottles. Cover and keep in a cool, dark place.

So far my bitters have been aging for a little over four weeks.  I think I'll skip parts 3 and 4 and just let them macerate for four weeks and strain thoroughly before adding a bit of water and maple syrup.

More Cologne Experiments

I had such a great time making colognes this summer, and the results were so successful, that I tried my hand at a couple more.  The new brews, Fresh Mown Hay and Bay Rum, did not disappoint.

Fresh Mown Hay is a maceration of sweet woodruff (which is left to rest after harvesting in order to bring out it's distinctive hay like scent), orris root, benzoin, roses, vanilla, lemon verbena, linden blossoms and jasmine flowers.  The woodruff not only gives it it's signature scent but also considerable tenacity.  It is a rich, lush fragrance with an almost edible quality to it and conjures images of rolling in meadows.

Bay Rum was definitely inspired by the vast bay bushes lining most of the coastal areas in the New York area. I've been gathering them and cooking with them for many years and finally came around to making a fragrance. Over the summer I gathered leaves and dried them (I read they yield a better fragrance dried) and did my research on formulary and then started to experiment. Using the rinds of some mandarin oranges and freshly ground cinnamon, allspice and cloves I was able to replicate and expand on the traditional scent.

Beach Glass Bottles

Green glass vials from the beaches of Brooklyn.

I've been very lucky this past summer finding bottles on the beach.  I seem to have hit the motherload.  Clear, amber and green glass bottles in all shapes and sizes are finding their way into my collection.  Some of them take on a frosted patina which makes them glow in the light from being rolled and tumbled in the ocean.  I can't help wondering where they originated and what was their original use.

Two perfume bottles

Cleaning them up and getting them ready to be used has been a big job.  They spend a lot of time soaking in soapy water in between scrubbings.  I've collected a vast array of bottle brushes to help with the job.  Once they're squeaky clean they're sterilized in a boiling water vat before they can be used.

Amber vials

A collection of tiny vials

I live my life in a very "green" way, long before anyone called it green.   I deplore waste of any kind so to find these bottles and be able to give them another life is a joy.  I've been collecting caps from broken bottles for ages so spent some happy days sorting through the collection and finding the proper cap.  Some of the bottles will be filled with the colognes I was producing this past summer but some are for sale on my Etsy store.  I love that each bottle is a one of a kind treasure.

Beach glass bottles put to use for my cologne collection.

Cologne Experiment Results

The results are in!  My experiments macerating dried flowers, roost, rinds and herbs are completed and I have detailed notes on the results.  After a month's time the liquor was strained off and clarified and then some were matched with hydrosols.  Certain recipes didn't work at all and were discarded but most of them yielded results.  I was really surprised by the tenacity of the different brews, some of them will last days on a tester strip. 

Summer Splash came as a real surprise.  The floral note that resulted from roses and lavender macerating with vetiver, sweet annie and orange peel was astonishing.  It was blended with lemon balm hydrosol to create a summery splash.  This one changes over time in a most interesting way.

Florida Water epitomizes summer for me. There is a large Latino community intermingled in my Brooklyn neighborhood and a lot of the pharmacies cater to this clientelle so are stocked with Florida Water. I have memories of my first years in Brooklyn discovering the pleasures of an evening shower followed with a splash of Florida Water. Orange blossom and clove are the distinctive notes in the cologne so I decided orange blossom hydrosol would be used with a maceration of meyer lemon rind, sweet woodruff, lavender, benzoin, cinnamon and clove. The results smell surprisingly like the water I used all those years ago, and I think it could be considered suitable for men as well as women.

Verbena Water is the result of macerating fresh lemon verbena and sweet woodruff from my garden, dried jasmine, linden blossoms and vanilla pods and then mixed with verbena hydrosol.  It's as fresh as it sounds, the softness of the woodruff and vanilla pared with lemon verbena counterbalance each other beautifully.

Rose Garden is a blend of dried roses, angelica root, jasmine, vanilla pods and lemon verbena which was then mixed with rosewater to create a veritable rose garden in a bottle.

Violet Water is the result of orris root, sweet woodruff, benzoin and jasmine marrying beautifully to create a woodland violet sort of fragrance which was then blended with cornflower water.  Violets contain a chemical called ionones which give them their characteristic fragrance.  Orris root, the dried and aged rhizome of the Iris pallida, also contains ionones but also has a woodland quality to it.  There are no violets in this blend so the name is merely a suggestion.

Each cologne is bottled in a one of a kind vintage glass bottle collected from the beaches of Brooklyn, NY. They've been scrubbed clean and sterilized but they're old and scratched to different degrees. Expect some wear from tumbling in the ocean for who knows how long.

Cologne Experiments

I'm having way too much fun riding out the heatwave researching old forumlary on the internet in search of cologne and toilet water recipes.  After years of collecting fragrant herbs, dried flowers, roots, powdered gums, tree resins, barks, citrus rinds and spices I wanted to see if macerating in vodka would produce results.  All of the old recipes I found used essential oils, absolutes and tinctures but I wanted to see what I could come up with with just the raw ingredients.

I've started two traditional cologne recipes, a violet water, something akin to 4711 and a Florida Water, as well as one true experiment.  It's been about ten days and I can already tell which ones have promise and staying power.  My plan is to let them sit for 30 days and then strain them off, filter them and let them settle.  Then I'll pour off the clear liquor and blend it with hydrosol.

When deciding on what to use for each experiment I'm still thinking like a perfumer and making sure I have top, middle and bottom notes.  I've been aging some orris root powder for a number of years now and it's developing a subtle sweetness that I hope the tincuring will release.  I also have powdered benzoin, cedar bark, vanilla pods and vetiver roots to play with.  Dried roses and lavender make up the bulk of the heart note but I'm also using a generous supply of jasmine sambac flowers that I've dried over the past year.  The linden blossoms that I collected last year have found their way into one as well.  For top notes I have citrus rinds that I dried over last winter including mineola tangerine and meyer lemon.  From my herb garden I've added sweet woodruff, lemon verbena, lavender, basil, sweet annie and rosemary.

So far I'm loving the process and the romance of it all.  When I was a child my grandmother bought me some cologne that I used as a kind of splash.  I have such fond memories of warm summer nights splashing on her cologne after a bath and going to sleep smelling sweetly.

I'm also enjoying using the fruits of my labor over the years, and feeling like a real apothecary.  I looked around during the process and thought that it looked like a film set of an apothecary at work, yet it wasn't contrived at all.  I find I'm repeating to myself, "oh, true apothecary".