Treacle
Pineward Perfumes (2021)

Strong, bold dark molasses sweetness which lasts forever, as all of this line does. My new favorite perfumer.

Treacle is a real stunner of a tobacco perfume, and one of the several I find to really deviate from the Pineward DNA.

This stuff is no joke. It's funny how Nick, the perfumer, notes Eldritch as the "challenging" offering, when there are a handful that I find to be much more bold and daring.

Treacle is the definition of bold and daring.

At least in the opening, that is.

That lapsang souchong (black tea smoked over pine logs - a material Nick seems to be fond of) is front and centre in the opening. This is one you cannot judge right from the top. Even I sometime wince upon first spray. You're hit with a smoky, tarry, almost meaty/peaty woodsmoke accord, that can honestly remind one of bacon, or a smoky Islay dram. This smoke encases a very real, very dark, very dense burley tobacco absolute. I'd bet real money on there being other tobacco absolutes in here, too, as there's somewhat of a sweet, moist, dark vanillic Cavendish facet, and as it wears on, maybe some softer, leafy Virginia, too.

Thankfully, that wall of smoke fades, and it fades rather quickly, too. Before long, the smokiness settles to a trace in the background, and you're left with a very real, very potent tobacco bomb. There are nuances of black treacle, and some honeyed sweetness drizzled over top, and there's a prominent, but balanced vanillic counterpoint, which may simply be a facet of the tobacco itself, but the dense, sticky, dark tobacco absolute remains the focal point, and as the hours pass, it follows a trajectory of increasing mellow, vanillic sweetness, with less and less brash smokiness, reaching a midway point where the meaty smoke is but a distant memory of the opening, and the subtle sweet, warm cloven spice of the tobacco casing becomes more and more apparent.

Treacle isn't quite as transportive as some other Pineward offerings, nor is it remotely as complex - but, for what it is - a tobacco perfume, it outclasses most of its rivals, and brings to the table its own unique spin and skill set. I'm not transported to beautiful pastoral scenes of idyllic farmlife in autumn, or dense enchanted forests of Tolkien lore, but I find this to be a near-perfect dark, bold, semi-sweet tobacco bomb, and it certainly conjures up feelings of autumn, winter, and the crisp air - serving as a sort of warm, comforting blanket, with a rugged, burley exterior.

This isn't your Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, your Parfums de Marly Herod, and it's definitely not your Mancera Red Tobacco. Sure, there's some festive cloven spice, some dark, vanillic undertones, and a brash leafiness about it, but if those are your tobacco references, this one is going to grab you by the collar, and shout at you, demanding you understand what *real* tobacco absolute smells like, and once it convinces you, then it will hold you close, in its warm, soft, and comforting embrace.

Maybe my single favourite tobacco perfume, and truly, a must-try for any tobacco lovers. Beautiful stuff.

And to settle this once and for all - Treacle bears zero, and I mean ZERO resemblance to Slumberhouse Sova. Not even the same ballpark. Jeke, on the other hand - I can see and understand the comparisions - there's some similarity in the tobacco nuance for sure, yes - but this veers off in a much different, much bolder, darker and less sweet direction, with a very different DNA. You'd have to really torture Jeke, send him to the gulag for a while, and make him convert his religion to get him smelling like Treacle... But sure, there's some shared elements.

Hope this helps :)

On initial application, Treacle smelled something like a cross between the wrong end of a stable and being stuffed head first into a cold wood-chip smoker. It reminded me, as well, of something weirdly reminiscent of bandages — possibly a tin box of some kind which my parents had when I was a child, with plasters or first-aid supplies in it. Heavily smoked, tarry, sticky — a real Jack Sparrow of a smell.

Over the course of the day, it went through a very medicinal period, a kind of Dr. Pinewards Elixir, before finishing off as a greenish smear on my skin and a whimper of tea and dried fruit.

Overall, it had aspects I liked, but like most of the others I tried from the line, it was an ultimately disappointing trip of an overly aggressive open, that in the long run lacked both presence and staying power.

I bought a sample as I had done with a few others from Pineward Perfumes. Treacle is hands down my favorite. One of the most realistic and well done tobacco fragrances I've tried, and this one gives me pure pleasure. It evokes a warm and comfy feeling sitting by a campfire out in the cold. I feel the notes are very spot on and well-blended. A real gem!

I'll conclude with three words:
FAB-U-LOUS!

5/5

Treacle has got most of the ingredients I truly love. Moreover, it's almost a perfect combination to blend in a perfume for me. Tea, pipe tobacco, smoke, spices, a pinch of sweetness. Although I'm not a big fan of drinking Lapsang Souchong Tea, I absolutely love this ingredient in perfumes. The scent itself reminds me a bit of good old Laphroaig 10 YO.

Both longevity and projection are outstanding.

Wow. This is f...in wow!

Sampling Pineward Perfumes Treacle, probably the most intense offering from the house that I’ve tried so far, with listed notes of tobacco, lapsang souchong tea, molasses, raisin, and honey, with (I believe) the lapsang souchong tea being the foremost contributor. Overall it somehow is both intensely sweet and intensely spicy, almost animalic, and pushes the extremes on both ends. Half of it leans toward the cinnamon sweetness of a cinnamon bun; the other half is a resinous spiciness to the point of nearly smelling like gasoline/petrol.

Its opening is very powerful but it does calm down a little bit and is a little bit easier on the nose, overall, after a couple hours of wearing, but I still find it to be most challenging, probably most daring entry in the line, but overall still well put together, just a like, not a love, though.

Treacle is priced at $135/80 for 37/17ml like the rest of the line, not cheap but for dense juice, well crafted, and neatly engraved bottles, the line’s pricing remains reasonable to me in the current market.

7 out of 10