Green Tea
Dry tea leaves, grassy steam, and a faint bitter freshness.
You may know it from A cup of brewed green tea
Where it comes from
Made from tea-leaf extracts and synthetic aroma materials.
Worth knowing
Often smells more like dry leaves than the drink.
About green tea
Green tea is the leaf left alone. It comes from the leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis that have not gone through the withering and oxidation that turn the same plant into oolong and black tea. Chinese green tea can be pan-fired in a dry wok, and as of 2015 China supplied about 80% of the world's green tea market.
Processing leaves its mark on the smell. A study of pan-fried green tea concluded that pan-frying as the characteristic manufacturing process shapes the chemical profile and aroma of the leaf, and the same work lists floral, fruity, violet and coconut among the descriptors it recorded.
The perfume reference point is Bulgari's Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert, released in 1992 as the house's first fragrance and composed by Jean-Claude Ellena. Bois de Jasmin writes that violet and jasmine made up its scent of green tea, and that it inspired a large family of tea perfumes. Ellena himself, in an interview with Persolaise, said of the tea in it: "Well, there is no tea. It's only illusion." Accounts of how the accord began differ, since Bois de Jasmin has him spending hours smelling teas at Mariage Frères, while Ellena says the story came later for marketing.
Premiere Peau's glossary says tea in perfumery is almost always an accord rather than an extract. A true green tea leaf absolute does exist, though. A supplier listed on The Good Scents Company describes it as fresh tea with delicate herbaceous, woody and tanned leather character. The same glossary says a tea note settles into a soft, powdery warmth within hours as the top notes fade.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Green Tea in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Green Tea most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Green Tea
Fragrances that list it in their notes, most-rated first.
Houses that use it most
Ranked by how many of their well-known fragrances list Green Tea.