Desirability: Full bottle
Bye Bye Alessandro (Mazzolari). Hello Conaffetto. I will start by saying that Conaffetto needs to be sampled on skin not paper, I tried both and on paper the bitter almond is overemphasized and wipes out its companions whereas on skin...it's heavenly...
Bitter almonds galore on opening. The sweetness from both the orange flower and sugar notes starts as a suggestion but as the scent warms on your skin, they warm up as well and the bitterness fades until you have the perfect marriage of bitter and sugar with orange blossoms instead of confetti scattered about. Like I said...it's heavenly...
Ok so throwing in some trivial knowledge. Raw almonds can taste mild and nutty and sometimes have a cherry smell to them(which disappears with roasting them). Why do raw almonds smell like cherries? Well they are related, both belonging to the family of "stone fruit", genus Prunus, including nectarines and apricots. The trees get hybridized to achieve different fragrant profiles and hence you get almonds that smell like cherries and vice versa.
There are sweet almonds and there are bitter almonds.Sweet almonds are the ones we see in nut mixes and cakes. Bitter almond is poisonous and only its oil or extract are safe to use.The term bitter almond is sometimes used interchangeably with apricot kernel which bears a similar appearance and shares the same poison as well as taste profile.
Apricot kernels are used together with almonds in the making of Amaretto and Amaretti biscotti as well as apricot preserves and marzipan. These bitter almonds/apricot kernels are rich in vitamin B17 or amygdaline, used in alternative cancer therapy. Ingesting as little as ten of these bitter almonds can result in cyanide poisoning as amygdalin releases cyanide in the gut through enzymatic action.
The almond in Conaffetto is decidedly bitter but not poisonous as I'm obviously still typing this as I wear it. What's really precious about Conaffetto for me is that it has the bitter almond note like Mazzolari's Alessandro and retains the warmth of Alessandro while passing on the powdery dry down of the Mazzolari which was a negative point for me. Then there is a fresh and lovely orange blossom note to brighten and sugar to sweeten the bitterness but both notes playing a smaller role compared to the almond. Conaffetto approaches but never quite becomes a gourmand for which I am thankful, enjoying it the way it is, blissful and with an air of nostalgia. It has an average projection but is tenacious and lasted more than a day on clothes.
Kate Moss' wedding dress designed by John Galliano is still number one for me.
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