Âme Sombre (2014) Sultan Pasha Attars
A Saffronic Extravaganza Âme Sombre (G1) Sultan Pasha Attars greets me with a heavy dose of saffron – dry, herbal, sparkly and spicy. Spicy and sparkly Persian rose otto and dry frankincense (especially their top notes) provides an extra boost to the saffron’s overall performance from the start. The first 15-20 mins is a saffron lover’s dream - almost as if it is on steroids, highlighting it’s dry, spicy and sombre (yet contemplative) facets with the help of rose, frankincense and tobacco. I can clearly detect some tobacco after about 10 minutes when AS gets drier, where it also adds an earthy quality. Âme Sombre [G1] (2017 Batch) Dry saffron (that we buy from shops) does not laid bare its olfactory wonders like this – or at least, we cannot detect them as they evaporate too quickly since it is not a base material. Here Sultan guided it in ‘a natural way’, but slowing things down and thus allowing each facets (spice, dry and leather) to shine without any discordance (i.e., well