Café V
Olympic Orchids (2013)

WOW! This has got POWERHOUSE written all over it!

It is an intense leather - with a very masculine/herbal/rough sorta take. This is definitely the opposite of a feminine scent. I mean, this is MANLY!

Clearly, I will not be wearing this any more than this sample...still debating as to whether to purchase for husband to wear. I think I like it...it's growing on me...truth is, not sure it will come off anytime soon! LOL! Better settle in and enjoy this thing...

I think I like it...rough, manly, sexy...clearly masculine.

This is one of those scents, that for me, is reminiscent of something way, way, back in time. It carries a wood base that seems a trademark Covey.
It's colour is of brown crackling Leather pair of Chaps. The Cardamon adds a dry, dusty, spicy almost paperlike smoke that parches slightly.
It carries a tone similar to Heeley's Phoenicia.
Unisex? I would say it is the kind of thing us boys like.
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It's official - I like Olympic Orchids best when they do these darker scents. Cafe V is a complicated mix of herbs and stuff that kind of smells like really dark root beer (sarsaparilla is a listed note) with sweet cardamom and dark cocoa, but with a woodsy tobacco leaf note that keeps it from being gourmand, though it is fairly sweet. There's a deep leathery quality as well, and a roasted smell that I'm guessing is the coffee (on me, Cafe V never smells like actual coffee, BTW). Given a few hours, it deepens down to a smell of sweet, leathery burnt woods.

Cafe V is a dense smell that's complicated without being messy, which is no easy feat for an indie perfumer. I've enjoyed watching Olympic Orchids mature over time. Cafe V still has just a hint of energetic naivety and essential oil reliance that belies a newer but maturing nose, but that's part of its charm, as opposed to a weakness.