Cacao and Black Tea Steam

[doomsday_disco]

Bittersweet cacao drifting through the aromatic warmth of freshly brewed black tea.

[doomsday_disco]

I decided to get a decant of this one just because some of the Lab's black tea notes have had a bit of an anise-like quality to them, so I wanted to confirm for myself if that was the case with this one.

 

Fortunately, this is mostly a tannic black tea scent, with only the barest hint of anise when freshly applied that lasts for like a split second. The tea note has a ton of throw, too, so if you're looking for a scent that's strong on the black tea, you may want to check this out.

 

Unfortunately, I really don't like the cacao in this. It doesn't smell chocolate-y at all to me, sadly. It's more like a cocoa butter or something like that to my nose because I was thinking it was more lotion-like than a gourmand cacao.  So this one is not a keeper for me.

[brwnpaperhag]

I’m so confused by this one. 
 

wet and into the first stage of drying, all I get is the familiar lab cacao (like from the 13s), which I don’t hate at all, but I was disappointed for it to start in such familiar territory. That said, the dry stage is very interesting - this has got to be the black tea steam, and it’s reading very…floral? I don’t know how to describe it, but I think it may be that lotion quality that doomsday is describing above - it feels less gourmand and more like a perfume, and especially like the dry down of a hotel lotion scent. 
 

I don’t hate it, but I’m not sure what I was expecting in the first place getting this scent, haha. I guess maybe I wanted the idea of a cup of strong black tea with the depth of an earthy cocoa powder? This definitely isn’t that, but this sample is fresh from the mail, so I’ll see how it ages.