The NOTEbook — scent spotlight

At Noteology, celebrating the holiday season - for us - is about bringing our best together. We gather with our family and friends to share in laughter, tell stories, and be in the presence of pure love. We make recipes that have been passed down in our families for generations. We give gifts that bring out the spirit of the season. There is absolutely nothing like the holidays!  There's also nothing better than receiving a gift that's locally made and locally loved at this special time of year. Each holiday season, Noteology takes time and care in selecting treasured gifts to...

Honey is one of nature’s most incredible and versatile gifts. Throughout history, honey has been used in a variety of ways, ranging from nourishing skin treatment to delicious natural sweetener. Stored in wax structures called honeycombs, honey is produced by honey bees and gets its distinctive flavor and sweetness from the sugary plant nectars of the flowers the bees frequent. Honey can vary in color and flavor, depending on the plants it was sourced from. Some of the most common varieties include orange blossom, lavender, clover, buckwheat, wildflower, and manuka. Honey has been used for thousands of years - in...

Who could have ever predicted that a yellow green fruit about the size of an orange with a bitter taste would become one of the most popular and distinctive fragrance notes? A cross between a bitter orange and a lemon, bergamot is a citrus fruit named after the Italian city of Bergamo, in which its oil was first sold. Today, it is cultivated in the southern party of Italy, as well as in parts of South America, with the Italian bergamot being prized for its quality. The use of bergamot spans across Europe and Asia. The fruit isn’t often eaten...

For troubled tummies or senses in need of invigoration, there’s nothing better than the scent of peppermint. As a cross between watermint and spearmint, this indigenous and highly aromatic herb to Europe and the Middle East is now widely spread and cultivated around the globe. The use of peppermint for medicinal and aromatic purposes dates back thousands of years - to 1,000 B.C. In fact, historical accounts dating back to ancient Chinese and Japanese folk medicine mention mint as a remedy in teas to soothe digestion and in the exploration of Egyptian pyramids, peppermint oil was found. Additionally, in Greek...

As a member of the mint family, patchouli brings a lovely earthy quality to so many fragrances. It comes in the form of a low, bushy shrub that grows natively in tropical regions throughout Southeast Asia. To distill its essential oil, the leaves are dried and then steamed to extract and distill a main chemical component - patchoulol - which often serves as a base in many perfumes. Patchouli itself has an incredibly interesting history. When textiles from India were shipped out across the sea in centuries past, dried patchouli leaves would be tucked in with the fabric to keep...