Neroli essential oil

White flowers, green, slightly bitter, with honey underneath. Fresher than jasmine and less sweet, with a leafy edge jasmine does not have.

The bitter orange tree gives three oils from three parts: the flowers give neroli, the leaves and young twigs give petitgrain, the fruit peel gives bitter orange oil. One tree, three smells, three price levels — and neroli is the most expensive, because it takes a great many hand-picked flowers for a small amount of oil.

Vietnamese readers have a very close reference point: pomelo blossom. The two species belong to the same genus, and anyone who remembers pomelo flowers in February will find neroli familiar at once, only a little greener and more bitter.