Tonka Impériale
Tonka Impériale is the seventh fragrance in the Art et Matière collection, a fragrance created around one of Guerlain's favorite raw materials in the Guerlinade: incredible tonka bean.
Little magic seed
Tonka bean is found in South America, particularly in Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil. It comes from the fruit of a tropical tree called dipteryx odorata. It is also called coumarouna, coumaru or sarrapia.
It grows along the banks of Amazonian rivers. It is 20 to 30 m high with a trunk of 50 to 70 cm in diameter, it has large leaves reminiscent of walnut and quite fragrant purple-pink flowers as soon as the fruit is mature. Its fruits are shaped like large almonds and each contains a single black, oval, oblong, shiny seed that wrinkles as it dries out, at which point it begins to smell and its scent becomes stronger.
Harvesting of tonka bean
The harvest takes place in May. Once ripe, ripe, the fruit falls to the ground and is then collected. They are dried for a year and then the shell is broken with either a stone or a hammer to extract the seeds. The recovered beans are then dried in the sun, then immersed in containers with strong alcohol at 65° for 24 hours. They are then air-dried, which causes a beautiful white glaze, resulting in the appearance of white coumarin crystals or powder. A tree gives between 15 and 75 kg of fruit per year. The person who harvests the tonka beans is called a sappapiero.
Multi-use of tonka bean
- Initially these seeds were ground into powder and sold in sachets to be placed in cupboards between piles of laundry.
- In perfumery the bean is processed by extraction with volatile solvent to obtain the tonka bean absolute.
- In cooking the bean itself can also be grated in the same way as a nutmeg to be used in pastries associated with chocolate, coffee and desserts (panna cotta). Be careful to use a reasonable amount like nutmeg, as tonka beans can be a bit dangerous in high doses.
- To flavor snuff and also Amsterdamer pipe tobacco (now banned in France and the US).
- I like to put tonka beans in my car near the heater, it's a delight!
A unique perfume, a fragrance in itself
It is a fragrant composition in itself, very rich in facets: woody, balmy, vanilla, almond, pistachio, tobacco, hay, honey.
The main molecule of this raw material is called coumarin. Tonka bean contains 46% coumarin which has a very almondy smell and is very similar to the smell of the little pots of Cleopatra glue from our childhood. The synthesis of coumarin was perfected in 1868 and was first used in Jicky with linalool and Ethyl vanillin.
Creative idea
Tonka Impériale is a surprising construction that blows hot and cold between the freshness of rosemary: an aromatic top note and gourmand and enveloping roundness of the tonka bean, a raw material dear to Guerlain and to me. I developed it with Delphine Jelk who is now a perfumer at Guerlain, with whom I also did the Little Black Dress, among others.
The idea was to accentuate the natural facets of the tonka bean. The fragrance is woody, almondy, honeyed, balsamy, tobacco-like, and gourmand (between gingerbread and chocolate). This astonishing contrast is a nod to the Jicky fragrance. The lavender is replaced by rosemary and the oriental part is replaced by tonka bean associated with balsam and woody notes.
This fragrance is perceived as both masculine through its aromatic and woody facet and feminine through the roundness of the tonka bean and the balsamic notes. Like Jicky, Tonka Impériale is contrasted, ambivalent. Racy and sweet, dynamic, yet enveloping, a fragrance that likes to stir up trouble. I love it!
Tonka impériale is available in the 30 Guerlain boutiques worldwide and in the twelve Parisian boutiques and airports.
Sylvaine Delacourte perfumes
You can find the tonka bean in Helicriss, Vahina and in Ozkan.
Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.