Mara des Bois Strawberry
The queen of French strawberries. Mara des Bois delivers an intoxicating blend of wild strawberry fragrance and cultivated sweetness, with a floral intensity that standard varieties cannot match. Its deep red flesh carries an almost perfume-like quality that perfumers treasure.
Character
How it smells
Wild strawberry soul, cultivated for perfumery.
Breeder Jacques Marionnet created Mara des Bois specifically so perfumers and chefs would no longer need to forage for fragile wild strawberries.
Origin
France
Before Mara des Bois, perfumers faced a dilemma. Wild Alpine strawberries carried extraordinary fragrance, but their tiny, soft berries were too fragile for commercial cultivation. The berries bruised within hours of harvest and produced barely measurable quantities of usable extract.
Meanwhile, common cultivated strawberries offered better yield but lacked that distinctive wild, floral perfume. In 1991, strawberry breeder Jacques Marionnet working in Soings En Sologne, France, solved this problem through deliberate cross-breeding. He combined European varieties including Gento and Red with other heritage cultivars to create a berry that carried genuine wild-strawberry fragrance in a firmer, more abundant fruit.
The result was deep red, intensely perfumed, and practical enough for the market. For perfumery, this was transformative. Mara des Bois berries could reach fragrance ingredient suppliers with their aromatic integrity intact, giving noses access to that elusive wild strawberry character without foraging expeditions.
Wears it best
Fragrances featuring Mara des Bois Strawberry
Good to know
Questions, answered
The essentials on Mara des Bois Strawberry in perfumery: how it smells, where it comes from, and how it behaves on skin.
What does Mara des Bois smell like compared to regular strawberry?
Mara des Bois smells more floral and intensely aromatic than standard cultivated strawberries. Where commercial strawberries are sweet and mildly fruity, Mara des Bois carries a wild strawberry character with a pronounced floral rose-like quality that perfumers consider more sophisticated.
Is Mara des Bois used in natural perfumery?
Yes, but sparingly. Fresh Mara des Bois berries yield very little extract by weight, making natural strawberry absolute rare and costly. Most perfumers use high-quality natural compounds or nature-identical molecules that faithfully recreate its scent profile.
What fragrance families pair well with Mara des Bois?
Mara des Bois works beautifully in fruity, floral, and gourmand compositions. It pairs especially well with rose, peony, musk, vanilla, and white amber. The note adds natural sweetness without the synthetic candy character of standard strawberry accord.
When was Mara des Bois strawberry developed?
French breeder Jacques Marionnet developed Mara des Bois in 1991 at his nursery in Soings En Sologne, France. The breeding program specifically aimed to combine wild strawberry fragrance with improved cultivation characteristics.
Why did perfumers need a new strawberry variety?
Wild Alpine strawberries contain extraordinary perfume but their fruit is tiny, soft, and perishable. Commercial strawberry varieties offered better yield but lost the floral fragrance perfumers needed. Mara des Bois bridged that gap.
Does Mara des Bois strawberry cost more than regular strawberries?
Yes, and notably so. Mara des Bois commands a premium in the fresh market because the berries are softer, more fragile, and yield less per plant than commercial varieties. This scarcity extends to fragrance ingredients derived from the variety.
Can I find synthetic Mara des Bois fragrance?
Nature-identical versions exist and are more common in perfumery than natural extracts. These compounds reproduce the key aroma molecules including furaneol and strawberry esters that give Mara des Bois its characteristic sweet, floral scent.
What makes Mara des Bois different from wild strawberries?
Mara des Bois carries the genuine wild strawberry fragrance its parent varieties are famous for, but in a deeper red berry with firm enough flesh for commercial handling. Wild strawberries remain too fragile and low-yielding for practical fragrance ingredient production.
