What Is Osmanthus, and What Does It Smell Like?
Ripe apricot and honey, with a soft hint of tea underneath.
Osmanthus smells like a ripe apricot warming in the sun, with honey in it and, underneath, a soft hint of tea. In Chinese culture it is one of the most beloved scents of all, yet in the West it remains surprisingly little known. We loved it enough to make a candle of it, our Osmanthus candle, but first, the flower.
What is osmanthus?
Osmanthus is an evergreen shrub native to China, where it is called 桂花 (guìhuā). Its flowers are tiny and grow in tight clusters close to the branch, in cream, gold or deep orange. They are easy to miss by sight but impossible to miss by smell: when the shrubs bloom, the scent drifts through whole streets. In English it also goes by tea olive or sweet olive, and it is grown in gardens wherever the winters are mild.
What does osmanthus smell like?
In Western perfumery, osmanthus is often grouped with the white flowers, alongside gardenia and tuberose. Yet its scent is distinctly fruity, with clear notes of peach, plum and apricot. Beneath the fruit lies a creamy, honeyed floral heart, and many perfumers also note a faint hint of tea. That balance is what makes osmanthus so easy to love: it is sweet without being cloying, and soft rather than heady.
What it means in Chinese culture
In Chinese culture, the scent of osmanthus is often associated with healing. Fittingly, its best known legend is about a tree that heals itself. An osmanthus tree, the story goes, grows on the moon, and a woodcutter named Wu Gang was sent there as punishment to cut it down. He chops at it forever, but every cut closes up again, and the tree stays whole.
A scent like that has never lacked admirers. Li Qingzhao, one of China's most celebrated poets, wrote of osmanthus:
“This one ranks first among all the flowers.”Li Qingzhao, Song dynasty. Read the whole poem in Ronald Egan's translation.
Because of its distinct scent, osmanthus also has a big place in Chinese cooking, above all in desserts. Mixed with honey and rock sugar, the flowers go into osmanthus rice cake, a soft, translucent sweet made from glutinous rice flour. A spoonful of the flowers also goes into osmanthus rice wine, a sweet, soup-like dessert of fermented rice. Modern dessert makers keep bringing this classic ingredient into new creations, like MeloMelo's Osmanthus Oolong Oat.
Bringing osmanthus home
Our Osmanthus candle carries that same ripe, golden sweetness. Light it, and your room feels like a bright, sunny day.
There may be more to it than pleasure. In one small lab study, people who breathed in an osmanthus extract for five minutes showed brain waves of a more relaxed state.
Each candle is 100% soy wax, poured into a handmade ceramic vessel.
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