5 min read

Mate Absolute – The Aroma of Green Tea, Tobacco, and Sun-Dried Hay

Written By: Robin Lander

What is it about the aroma of a freshly brewed cup of tea that feels so uplifting and revitalizing? Perhaps it’s the way the scent slowly unfolds, the memories it evokes, or simply the quiet moment of pause it invites. For many fragrance-lovers, the aroma of tea is a sensory pleasure much like the joy of smelling a perfume.

We’re excited to welcome back into our collection a beautiful Mate Absolute. This complex extract opens with the deep, rich aroma of green tea, expanding into notes of tobacco and sun-dried hay. Leathery and woody-balsamic undertones intertwine with subtle smoky nuances that continue into the long dry down.

Mate Absolute can be a key ingredient in green tea accords and tea-like fragrances, popular for their familiar, comforting associations and easy wearability. Yet, Mate possesses a highly versatile naturalness that can enhance a wide variety of compositions, including fougère, new mown hay, forest, herbal, amber, chypre, leather, gourmand, and floral. Follow along for the details on Mate Absolute and how to use it in your formulations.

Mate Extraction – From Leaf to Absolute

Mate, also known as Yerba Mate, is an evergreen shrub-like tree in the Holly family, native to South America. Indigenous communities have been preparing a tea of the caffeine-containing leaves since ancient times, and the popularity of the drink has now spread around the world.

Our producer procures Mate leaves grown in Argentina and processes the absolute in Europe. Using a specially developed technology, the absolute is extracted directly from the leaves with ethyl alcohol as the solvent. This creates a material with an exceptional tea-like Mate aroma and a bit more fluidity than other Mate Absolutes.

Despite this fluidity, Mate Absolute is a semi-solid material that will require warming to aid mobility and dilution. You can learn more about diluting thick and solid materials here.

Please note: Mate Absolute contains about 10-15% caffeine. If you are highly sensitive to caffeine or have an allergy to it, we recommend avoiding use of this material. It may also contain <1% ethanol remaining as a residual solvent.

Mate’s Aromatic Profile – Where Agrestic Meets Green

Mate Absolute, with its dry hay and tobacco notes, falls into the Agrestic aroma family – alongside Absolutes such as Hay, Tobacco, and Oakmoss – a category known for evoking the scent of bucolic countrysides, sun-warmed meadows, and fresh-turned earth.

However, it also shares qualities of the Green Herbal aroma family with its green, mildly astringent, leafy herbaceousness. You can learn more about aroma families and how they relate to each other with the Aftelier Natural Perfume Wheel, a valuable tool for the natural perfumer.

Formulating with Mate Absolute – Go Green or Go Dark

A complex chameleon of scent, formulators find Mate Absolute useful in far more than green tea accords. Depending on how it is paired, it can move in two very different directions, from fresh, green, and airy to dark, rich, and sophisticated.

Used in small amounts in a heart note accord, it can bring greenness to floral compositions or a clean, fresh realism. Try it with:

·         Citrus notes like Bergamot, Grapefruit, Mandarin, and Lemon

·         Fruity and green florals like Jasmine, Chamomile, Orange Blossom, and Neroli

·         Green and herbaceous notes like Galbanum, Violet Leaf, and Clary Sage

·         Petitgrain Bigarade and Rosewood Leaf for green tea accords

·         Beeswax, Osmanthus, and Ylang Ylang to create more realistic Jasmine impressions

As part of a base accord, Mate lends its woody, leathery, and subtly smoky qualities to black tea or tobacco accords and deeper, more masculine fragrances. Explore it with:

·         Tobacco, Hay, Labdanum, and Beeswax for black tea accords

·         Woods like Oakwood, Sandalwood, and Cedarwood

·         Mossy notes like Oakmoss, Asparagus Twig, and Cypress By-Absolute

·         Smoky notes like Vetiver, Hiba Wood, and Amber Oil, Fossilized

·         Resinous Cistus, Elemi, and Frankincense

·         Spices like Pepper, Black - Organic, Cinnamon Bark - Organic, and Cardamom

With its comforting and sensual character, Mate Absolute is sure to lend multi-faceted texture and intrigue to your formulations. It offers a rich, smooth complexity to a wide range of accords, providing botanical realism for your fragrances.