Ginger and Spice in Chapter One

Four of the eight Chapter One extraits carry heat. Three carry ginger, each against something different: orange in 06 Sun Through Linen, mango in 02 What Remains of Summer, black tea in 08 Beyond The Horizon. The fourth, 05 Plum Beneath Snow, lists spice beside plum. The Notes describes ginger as fresh spice with a zesty, peppery edge, and spice as a dry, warm heat that sharpens fruit and lifts wood. This essay reads the four from the brightest to the darkest, so you can choose how much heat you want, and what you want it beside, before you choose the bottle.

Ginger with orange: 06 Sun Through Linen

"Warm skin, white linen, the grove at noon." 06 is citrus-forward, with juicy orange, bright bergamot and a ginger edge. It lists three notes, so the ginger is a third of what you read on the label, and there is no wood or amber beneath it. If you want the lightest heat of the four, start here. Sun Through Linen, Note by Note follows each of the three.

Ginger with mango: 02 What Remains of Summer

"Heat held a little longer than it should be." Ripe mango and bright pomelo, with a ginger edge over dry amber and vetiver. Here the ginger sits between the fruit and a dry base. 02 is one of two bottles in the Spicy family, and the one whose heat comes from ginger. What Remains of Summer, Note by Note reads its five notes in turn.

Ginger with black tea: 08 Beyond The Horizon

"The line where the day opens out." Bright bergamot and ginger dissolve into smoky black tea and warm amber woods. In 08 the ginger comes with the bergamot, and the tea and woods are what it gives way to. If you already wear 04 Tea Beneath Clouds, 08 is the tea fragrance with ginger and smoke. How Tea Got Into Perfume covers the tea, and Beyond The Horizon, Note by Note reads the bottle from the bergamot down.

Spice with plum: 05 Plum Beneath Snow

"Dark fruit, warm under a cold sky." Syrupy plum and spice laid over smoked oud and resin. 05 is the only bottle in the chapter that lists spice rather than ginger, and here the heat sits with dark fruit and wood instead of citrus. Its own description calls it opulent, and a little severe, and it is the darkest of the four. Plum Beneath Snow, Note by Note reads it note by note, and Oud Without the Mythology covers the wood beneath the plum.

Choosing between them

Read them in pairs. For ginger with citrus, 06 and 08 both pair bergamot with ginger: 06 stays with the orange, and 08 moves on into black tea and amber woods. For the Spicy family itself, 02 and 05 go from fresh fruit to dark, mango and pomelo over dry amber against plum over oud and resin. Four Bright Openings sets 02, 06 and 08 beside 01 by the way each begins, and Chapter One for the Colder Months reads 05 among the bottles for autumn and winter. The Fruit of Chapter One spends longer on the mango in 02 and the plum in 05, and The Ambers of Chapter One on the dry amber, resin and amber woods beneath 02, 05 and 08.

Find Your Fragrance sorts the whole chapter by family, and The Notes lets you start from ginger or spice and see which bottles carry it. Each is an extrait at 30% concentration or more, composed and made by hand by Dave Martin in La Conner, Washington, and each comes in 10 ml as well as 30 ml and 50 ml, so you can get to know a fragrance before a larger bottle. How to Wear an Extrait covers how much to apply.

Where the heat goes next

Dave's next releases are for fall: darker, fruit-forward fragrances and smoky incense, with soft musks and skin scents worn close beside them. Each release is a limited run of about 35 bottles in all, and people on the list get two full days to buy before it opens to everyone. Beyond Chapter One has more on where the chapter leads.

If two of these are close for you, write to Dave. He answers every email himself and will tell you where he would start, for yourself or as a gift, and he can add a handwritten note to the order.