The New Gourmand Perfumes AI Tamara

Gourmand perfumey is moving past tooth aching sweetness. The new gourmand perfumes are more complex and sophisticated. Perfumers and creative directors of niche and artisan houses are no longer keeping us on a high-carb scent diet, freeing us from sugar overload, and offering instead something more balanced, more nourishing. Siam1928 by perfumer Nutt Wesshasartar and the Vietnamese D’Annam brand are two that are taking the gourmand perfume category to a whole new level.

Perfumer Anh Ngo, image via the brand (all the fragrances below are his compositions)

 Perfumer Anh Ngo for Vietnamese brand D’Annam approaches White Rice as a tribute to the most essential element of its culinary culture: jasmine rice.

D’Annam White Rice, image via the brand

What strikes you first is not so much a note as a texture — soft, humid, dense. It is wrapped in a gentle nutty aura and seems to float on the breath of steam rising from a freshly cooked bowl of rice. That steam never quite dissipates; it lingers, surrounding you in a soft, pillowy haze from beginning to end. There is also something quietly compelling in the way the composition is constructed: its transitions feel intentionally unpolished, subtly irregular, and precisely because of that it retains a remarkable sense of substance and life. White Rice is not about celebration; it is about the everyday — and about the way a subtle shift in perception allows that everyday to reveal its quiet depth and beauty.

D’Annam Pomelo Oolong, image via the brand

A shift in perception like this comes from small, repeated gestures — tea, in many Eastern cultures, is one of them. Pomelo Oolong takes its starting point in oolong tea, but rather than evoking the familiar image of tea as a drink, it turns to the leaves themselves: tightly rolled and pearlescent, with a dry, almost woody texture. It is the scent you encounter when you open a tin and bring it close to your face, inhaling directly from within. Osmanthus plays a key role here as well. Often rendered with its characteristic tea-like quality and a faint leathery edge, it appears here in a different light: its fleshy apricot side brushing against the tea’s woody grain, illuminated by the juicy brightness of pomelo. A gentle, plant-like lactonic quality runs through the composition, binding its elements together while allowing each to remain distinct. In fragrances like this, the day itself seems to shift almost imperceptibly: nothing outwardly changes, and yet everything feels lighter, as if you were moving just slightly above the ground.

D’Annam Vietnamese Coffee, image via the brand

Coffee, you might say, has already been explored countless times in perfumery. Yet most interpretations revolve around black coffee in its various roasted and brewed forms. Vietnamese Coffee, however, tells a different story. It evokes a particular preparation: dark-roasted robusta, slowly filtered, combined with condensed milk, sometimes poured over ice — a drink built on contrast. On first encounter, what surprises is a cool, almost refreshing sensation that seems to have no place in such a dense, caramel-tinged fragrance. “Lily of the valley,” I thought for a moment — and dismissed it, only to discover shortly after that this crystalline note is indeed there. That light breath of spring runs like a fine thread of neon light through the composition, holding together its richer facets and allowing them to resonate with a subtle clarity. There is something indulgent about Vietnamese Coffee – not in a dramatic or celebratory sense, but in the way a daily ritual can become its own small moment of pleasure, like the simple act of pouring a cup, repeated day after day, and yet never entirely losing its quiet pull.

Perfumer Nutt Wesshasartar, photo via the brand

If D’Annam is about the quiet, everyday pleasures of life, Siam1928 approaches gourmand perfumery from a different angle. Regulars at Esxence know how difficult it can be to spend the whole day moving from stand to stand.

In 2024, at the end of a long day, I had a meeting scheduled with the Thai house Siam1928, founded by perfumer Nutt Wesshasartar, who composes all the brand’s fragrances – Mekha Aranya received the Artisan Award at the 2025 Art and Olfaction Awards. What surprised me most was that after smelling the entire collection, I was not tired at all — on the contrary, I wanted more and more, like someone unable to get enough of a landscape or a piece of music that has suddenly revealed its beauty. Risking sounding foolish, I even asked Nutt whether he used materials different from those of European perfumers. He smiled and, of course, said no.

The universe of Siam1928 is one of mythological beings and imagined landscapes, of colors, textures, and flavors that feel almost otherworldly. Whatever the theme, the fragrances are composed with remarkable softness and ease. The perfumer does not so much work as play — with materials, with us, with life itself — and like watching a magician’s hands, it is impossible to look away.

One of the house’s bestsellers, Yod Beer, is inspired by Bearnana, a Witbier by the Thai brand Yodbeer. During brewing, sun-dried bananas — a traditional Thai sweet — are added in two stages, resulting in a beer with notes of caramel, honey, and the distinctive scent of dried bananas. The fragrance follows this idea: pronounced hops (CO₂ extract), tart malt, honeyed dried bananas, caramel, and chocolate, sharpened by the coolness of coriander and the zesty brightness of orange peel. What could be less poetic than beer? And yet, the result is both vivid and comforting. It is the kind of scent you want to wrap yourself in, to let it seep into every cell, and to move through the day enveloped in a thin veil of bittersweet syrup that soothes and steadies the mind.

Siam1928 Red Jungle, image via the official website

Another composition in the collection draws on Red Jungle, a grape marc spirit in the style of grappa. But what matters here is not the technicality of its production, but the effect. This is a burst of fruit and dried fruit — grapes that seem to splatter against the skin, releasing their tart skins and juice, all steeped in alcohol and brandy, laid over a firm woody base of oakwood, cedarwood, and sandalwood. It is the kind of fragrance you want to drench yourself in, from head to toe, just to amplify its life-affirming effect. And with this house, you can. These perfumes never exhaust you, never overload the senses — as if they were composed not from the usual palette of materials, but from roses, lavender, and jasmine grown somewhere beyond the ordinary world, in fields that feel almost unreal. If drinking strong spirits to lift one’s mood is a questionable habit, a few sprays of the right perfume achieve much the same effect — without the hangover.

Siam1928 Nari Vimala, image via the official website

And even in a story about the everyday, there must be dessert. In the world of Siam1928, it is, naturally, Thai — and exquisitely so. Nari Vimala is inspired by a traditional Thai dessert, Kluay Buat Chi, often poetically translated as “banana nun.” The dainty porcelain bottle features Jay the Rabbit, a character from contemporary Thai pop culture, embodying a modern, self-sufficient woman who lives entirely on her own terms. We might as well follow her lead, indulging in this thoroughly lactonic composition built around banana, lifted by the green nuance of banana leaf that keeps it from tipping into excess, and deepened by the powdery elegance of orris root and a cosmetic accord. Dense, enveloping, intimate, and delicious, it acts as a kind of armor against the small irritations and dullness of everyday life.

Disclosure: all fragrances were offered by the brand; opinions are always my own.

Tamara Gezerdava, Guest Contributor

Siam1928 logo, image via the official website

Thanks to the generosity of Siam1928, we have a Siam1928 discovery set for one registered reader from the USA or the EU. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Tamara’s essay on the new direction of gourmand perfumery and where you live. Draw closes April 5, 2026

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