Hibiscus Mahajad

Hibiscus Mahajád captures an olfactory revelation experienced by Maison Crivelli founder Thibaud Crivelli while drinking a cup of hibiscus tea in the heart of a gemstone market. Known as bissap (in Senegal) or karkadeh (in the Maghreb and Levant), tea made from dried hibiscus petals is as popular for its raspberry pink color as for its fruity flavor, but we find it also has a very grown up resinous vanilla or floral aftertaste in the mouth. Quentin Bisch cleverly accentuates this rosy, vanillic facet by draping the finest rose and vanilla absolutes produced under Givaudan’s prestigious ORPUR label over the bow of the bright, rhubarb-like stalkiness of the hibiscus tea.

But Maison Crivelli never produces a scent whose story is this straightforward. The surprise in Hibiscus Mahajád lies in the contrast between the berried brightness of hibiscus against softly spiced leather and the cooling freshness of spearmint leaf. These contrasts are worked into the fabric of the scent allow it to subtly fluctuate between tart and candied, resinous and herbal, and sweet and sour, before it finally settles into a silky muskiness derived from the seeds of the hibiscus itself. At 32% concentration, Hibiscus Mahajád is an exquisite extrait de parfum that pins the glittering hibiscus against a soft, luxuriant backdrop, like a jeweler placing a precious ruby on a green velvet mount.