peach: 3 posts

Autumn here in Belgium begins overnight. After the short interlude of an Indian summer, you wake up to an overcast, gray day and feel that the clouds are only a few inches above your head. The roses might still be in full bloom, the daytime temperature is still comfortable, but you already know that the rainy season is here. It’s telling that in the old Bruxellois dialect, there are numerous words for rain. It can be a delicate mist that looks innocuous but soaks you to the bone within minutes. It can be a lashing, cold rain that makes umbrellas obsolete, or it might just be a nagging drizzle that makes me feel sad for no particular reason and ponder the wisdom of bears that go into hibernation for the winter.

Since the winter here is nine months long, hibernation isn’t really an option. I’ve learned to do all of my chores on foot and shop at the open air markets which are run year round in each neighborhood, rain or shine. Brussels is made up of 19 communes, and if you love markets, you can explore different areas of the city based on your specific shopping needs. On Saturday, you can pour over the antique books at the market held at the Place du Sablon. On Sunday, you can buy spices and vegetables at the sprawling le Marché du Midi or walk along Rue de Brabant and feel as if you’re in Morocco. While les grandes surfaces (supermarkets) offer stiff competition, the vibrancy of the open air markets even on the dreariest of days is appealing.

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Few desserts can compete with the perfection of a ripe peach. Topping it with a dollop of crème fraîche is like gilding a lily, but if one seeks utter indulgence, it is the ultimate recipe. The melting sweetness of peach and the tartness of cream were made for each other, resulting in a beautiful balance of flavors.

In cooking, like in perfumery, an interesting sensation can be created by combining either two complementary notes or two dissonant ones. In the case of peaches and cream, the flavor of both is highly dependent on the creamy, milky notes. (If you’re curious to dig deeper, this flavor occurs thanks to the presence of lactones, a diverse group of organic compounds with creamy nuances; lactone is derived from the Latin lac, lact-, which means milk.)

If peaches and cream form a perfect gustatory marriage, nothing can serve as better inspiration for exploring peach notes in fragrance, especially when they appear as a luscious accent, rather than as a canned fruit salad.

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Guerlain Mitsouko is the scent of golden autumn days, ripe peaches and burnished wood. Created by Jacques Guerlain in 1919, Mitsouko was a variation on the avant-garde fragrance of the period–Coty Chypre.

Chypre was based on the startling contrast among the bergamot top notes, the jasmine heart and the richness of oakmoss. Though undoubtedly beautiful, Chypre was brutal in its impact. Guerlain took the idea behind its famous forerunner and made it elegant and refined. A soft accent of peach skin gives Mitsouko a tender quality and a teasing gourmand impression. A classical Guerlinade accord of tonka bean, vanilla, iris and rose further refines and rounds out the composition. Mitsouko is a kiss to Coty Chypre’s slap in the face, and for this reason, its popularity endures to this day.

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