July 6th 2006 Osmanthus Phase One

fenugreek_seeds, originally uploaded by garu2000.

This is my first try. I went bold and daring, and put in the greediest ingredients I had in terms of olfactory space. Including two that I am not at all familiar with, and that are not particularly accommodating. I hoped that helicrysum absolute (a material I am using for the first time) will provide a dark, tea-like base, and that davana will add fruitiness. Well, I was not far off. At first it seemed to go rather well and smell osmanthusy and full bodied. However, after a very short period of time, the osmanthus and fruit wears off, and a pungent, persistent body odour creeps at me. As if I was taking my food with Hilbah - a Yemenite fenugreek condiment (this can happen also after eating certain East Indian curries, also made sometimes with fenugreek). For the same reason I avoid Hilbah in all its forms, I am tempted to avoid this phase one. It’s dark alright! But not what I want. The davana adds a somewhat repelling winey note, but if you bear with it for a while you got to like it for what it has to offer. It does steal the show now, though, after maturing for about a week. It will be interesting to see what it turns into in a few more days. Nice try though.