Arquiste Anima Dulcis – image courtesy Arquiste

Sicily is always a feast for the senses and my vacation earlier this month was no exception. I really enjoyed the time spent among Agrigento and Siracusa so much that it still gives me sensory flashbacks. One in particular takes me back to Modica and Noto, two baroque pearls unmistakably shaped by the Spanish domination. While in Modica, as soon as you walk down the monumental stairs of St. George’s Dome to the main street, you crave the traditional Modican chocolate, a delicacy with roots steeped in the Spanish conqueror’s era.

 Noto as seen from the Monastery of the Holy Crucifix – credits Ermano Picco

Then I moved to Noto to see a friend and visit the Church of St. Claire with its gilded stuccos and the adjacent monastery of the Holy Crucifix featuring a breathtaking rooftop view. Going down the secret corridors that only the reverend nuns could access in the past, one can easily imagine their secluded life as a community praying, singing, and cooking. Behind those white walls reeking of incense and saltpeter, the sweet illusion of chocolate fumes almost became a mystical experience. Arquiste Anima Dulcis perfectly bottles this genus loci, not just being a time capsule but a Modern Masterpiece imparting a gourmand perfume with a new, historical, anthropological and spiritual meaning.

 The delicate golden stuccos of St. Claire church – credits Ermano Picco

Every Arquiste perfume begins with a brief which describes a place and time period. “November 1695, Mexico City” is the coordinates Arquiste founder Architect and designer Carlos Huber gave to Givaudan Master Perfumers Rodrigo Flores-Roux and Yann Vasnier for Anima Dulcis.

“Deep inside the halls of the Royal Convent of Jesus Maria, a group of reverent nuns prepares a Baroque recipe of spiced Cocoa. The brew is infused with an assortment of chilies that tempt rapture, and the air is rich with the scent of exotic spices. After centuries of safe-keeping within this closed world, their secrets are finally revealed to the senses”.

Yann Vasnier, Carlos Huber, Sophie Bensamou (the Fragrance Evaluator for Arquiste at that time, now at Symrise) and Rodrigo Flores-Roux – image courtesy Carlos Huber

If you have never bitten into a bar of chocolate from Modica, then you cannot understand the intense pleasure of raw chocolate the way it  was used many years ago. In fact. before the Swiss added the process of conchery, chocolate making started from the roasted beans to obtain the cocoa powder. It was then cold-mixed to cocoa butter along with sugar, spices and the precious Mexican vanilla seeds.

The artist’s sister in the garb of a nun, Sofonisba Anguissola (1551)

The same process still used in our era to make Sicilian chocolate, came to the island straight from the new world via the Spanish conquerors, (probably thanks to the nuns who spread the recipes through their religious congregations). This  method was taken straight from the Aztec tradition and preserves the whole tanninic, herbaceous and animalic richness of roasted cocoa beans only cut by spices. Of course, sugar was added by Europeans to make it less bitter  and closer to what we know s as a sweet confection. Dark, primal and unadulterated, chocolate can be tough to master in a fragrant composition but: Arquiste Anima Dulcis does not shy away from placing it at the core; the sweet soul which makes this perfume so unique.

 Still life with a basket and sweetmeats, Juan Van Der Hamen y Léon (1622)

Arquiste Anima Dulcis opens with creamy burst of roasted sesame seeds, nutty but not blatantly foody thanks to its hints of leather. A dash of bergamot brighten it with an airy lift, together with the aromatic stroke of oregano boosting the earthy bitterness of the sisters concoction and thus, by contrast also its sinful lusciousness. Immediately, Anima Dulcis stands out not only as what is in my opinion the best Arquiste fragrance, but also as a remarkable gourmand, so flawless and grown-up it never turns to a childish glucose monolith.

Night-blooming jasmine (Huele de noche) illustration from Flore [pittoresque et] médicale des Antilles  – M.E. Descourtilz (1821-1829)

As it develops on the skin, there is a surprise reveal of  a delicious floral aspect, like the scattering of translucent petals anchored to the flesh by dry, warm spices. This stage is sublime and so evocative it brings up to my mind images of Mexican deities covered in garlands of intoxicating night-blooming jasmine with its addictive datura-like pepperiness. Or again, the ethereal levitations of Saint Teresa of Avila as spectacularly depicted in The Kitchen: Levitation of Saint Theresa, a set of videos and pictures Marina Abramovic located in a Spanish Carthusian convent where the nuns fed more than 8000 orphans during the Franco regime.

Kitchen, Marina Abramovic (2009)

This is also a reminder that during the Middle Ages “gluttony was a capital sin” and the Noble Brides’ of Christ contemplation and confessions were paused to bake their confections mostly for Royalty or to be benevolently dropped in the pockets of the pilgrims knocking at their door; for example of Sicilian ‘mpanatigghi (from the Spanish empanadas), sweet dumplings filled with bush meat, chocolate, spices and dried fruits the sisters offered to the travelers so they could eat them for days while walking and praying in their pilgrimages.

Photo courtesy of Arquiste Parfumeur

After a few hours Anima Dulcis settles, releasing a purring vanilla as jammy (Mexican vanilla is indeed the fruitiest one bearing plum and carob facets) as the smell you get while cutting real vanilla pods. The drydown wears like a savory cloud of medicinal spices led by cinnamon, smoothed by sweet amber. Yet chocolate still lurks in the background, tantalizing with the aftertaste you get from a piece of black Grand Cru, making you lick your dirty fingers for more.

Anima Dulcis features notes of sesame seed, cinnamon bark, oregano, clove buds, cumin, night-blooming jasmine, smoked chili infusion, Mexican vanilla bean, cocoa bean absolute and an oriental-chypre accord. Longevity is excellent and, like most of the Arquiste line-up, sillage is very good leaving an elegant and not too overpowering trail, just like the luminous Sicilian baroque.

This review is based on a sample of Anima Dulcis kindly provided by Arquiste via its Italian distributor Finmark S.r.l. My opinions are my own.

Ermano Picco, Editor and Perfume Expert (with contributions from Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s Note: Arquiste Misfit which celebrates ten years  was the 14^th fragrance in the collection and was reviewed by Lauryn Here

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