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    SILLORIA

    Ingredient Profile

    Brazilian tonka bean absolute fragrance note

    Brazilian tonka bean absolute is a warm, sensual base note with rich vanilla-caramel sweetness, creamy almond nuance, and powdery coumarin d…More

    Brazil

    1

    Fragrances

    StoryProductionOrigin

    Fragrances featuring Brazilian tonka bean absolute

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    Best Seller
    4.3

    Armani Code

    Giorgio Armani

    Character

    The Story of Brazilian tonka bean absolute

    Brazilian tonka bean absolute is a warm, sensual base note with rich vanilla-caramel sweetness, creamy almond nuance, and powdery coumarin depth. It functions as an exceptional fixative in oriental and gourmand fragrance families, lending lasting warmth and tobacco-leathery undertones to compositions.

    Heritage

    Cigarette manufacturers first adopted tonka beans in the mid-19th century, blending the warm aroma of the seed into tobacco to soften harsh smoke. The perfume industry subsequently elevated this humble ingredient to luxury status, recognising coumarin as a fragrance asset of remarkable depth. By the early 20th century, tonka bean absolute had become a cornerstone of oriental and amber accords, prized for its ability to add warmth, sweetness, and fixative power to compositions. Its journey from South American forest to the laboratories of Grasse represents one of perfumery's most compelling stories of botanical discovery transforming an agricultural commodity into an icon of natural luxury.

    At a Glance

    Fragrances

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    Origin

    Brazil

    Primary source region

    Ingredient Details

    Extraction

    Solvent extraction (concrete to absolute)

    Used Parts

    Dried beans

    Did You Know

    "Approximately 180 kilograms of tonka fruit yield just 18 kilograms of dry beans, which produce a single kilogram of absolute."

    Production

    How Brazilian tonka bean absolute Is Made

    The tonka bean tree Dipteryx odorata rises 20 to 30 metres along the banks of Amazon rivers in Northern Brazil, its red trunk resembling teak and its fragrant flowers blooming between December and April. Community harvesters collect the ripe fruit after it falls to the ground between August and September, breaking the shells by hand using a stone or hammer in a technique called pisado. Workers dry the recovered beans first in shade, then in sun, before immersing them in containers of 65-degree alcohol for 24 hours. Over the next five to six days, the beans develop a characteristic white glaze as coumarin crystals form on the outer layer. The absolute is produced through solvent extraction, first yielding a concrete, then a viscous dark-brown absolute with an intensely warm, sweet profile.

    Provenance

    Brazil

    Brazil3.5°S, 62.2°W

    About Brazilian tonka bean absolute