Coffee Break : Golden Moka
Xerjoff (2018)

Xerjoff Golden Moka is the second entry I'm trying from the Coffee Break collection released in 2018 (after Golden Dallah), and like Golden Dallah, there is the vague hint of raw unroasted coffee and some roasted coffee. I was assisted in understanding that the cannabis-like aspect of Golden Dallah was actually the fresh coffee rather than black / roasted coffee.

Golden Moka is noticeably fresher and brighter, a mix of citruses, raw coffee, oud, rose, and resins, still having some of the same funky cannabis-type feel as Dallah but in a fresher blend, certainly yielding a less idiosyncratic and more versatile offering while still having a lot of character. I think it's an impressive feat to use the raw coffee accord in this way to yield a multifaceted, borderline tropical fruity mix that is provocative in various ways (with rose and oud in the mix) but settles in a reasonably well-blended fresh, sweet, resinous, yet still sort of funky coffee mix. Like Dallah, I love Moka–it's a great fragrance and slightly easier to wear than Dallah, even if Dallah edges it out on account of richness and daringness.

Golden Moka appears to only be available in the US via Luckyscent and then the Xerjoff Universe website, for $275 and €235, respectively, so priced slightly higher than Golden Dallah, peculiar since Dallah seems to be denser / higher-performing than Moka, but it could be a matter of ingredients and I'm currently unsure if Moka was released later than Dallah in 2018 (Green followed in 2020).

8 out of 10

Golden Moka is a mix of coffee and spices made fresh with citrus fruit. It's beautiful, original and unisex to me.

Also a decent semi-gourmand sibling to Golden Dallah, but with a noticeable citrus quality in comparison.

The coffee note here is also more subtle, almost undetectable. Oud is a light, clean woody note lacking any indolic traits to it. And the "green notes" is there, reinforcing the head note citrus elements.

Perhaps Golden Moka is meant to explore the more tart side of coffee versus the spicier Golden Dallah. Of the two, I like its sibling better, though GM isn't alogether bad (but, as with other Xerjoff products, commands a high price compared to more fortified coffee scents out in the market).