Rum

Rum in perfume recalls the spirit rather than any plant: sweet, boozy and warm, with notes of molasses, dried fruit, vanilla and oak. Perfumers build it from aroma molecules and accords of sugar, wood and spice, because a spirit cannot be extracted into a perfume oil. The result is rich, a little syrupy and slightly smoky. It adds a polished, convivial warmth to tobacco, leather and gourmand blends, and a darker sweetness to fruit. In small doses it gives a fragrance a golden, mellow opening.

In this range it mostly sits in the top, where its boozy sweetness opens the fragrance and then gives way to vanilla, wood and spice.