Reference point
A handful of tiny yellow Aglaia flowers, smelled inside cupped palms.
Do this before you read on. An entry only works when you have just smelled the thing.
Lightly sweet, clear, with a grassy note and a touch of powder. So discreet that you have to cup your hands to catch it.
It is the opposite of osmanthus: the flowers are just as tiny but the smell is very faint and has to build up before it can be smelled. The two species show that the size of a flower says nothing about the strength of its smell.
Dried and fresh flowers differ clearly. Dried, the clear part is lost and only the grassy and powdery notes remain, closer to tea than to a flower.
How to smell it
Pick a handful of the flowers, close both palms around them and wait a minute for the warmth to release the smell. Then open your hands and smell. Smelled directly outdoors, you will catch almost nothing.
Why this one is hard
Because it is so faint. Most people who try it conclude it has no scent, when really it just needs the right conditions to build up.
Scientific note
We have not found a reliable compositional analysis of Aglaia odorata flowers in the literature available to us. Many sources describe it sensorially but none publishes figures, so we leave this section blank.
In Vietnamese life
In the north the flowers are used to scent tea and kept in wardrobes, playing the role dried lavender plays in Europe. The shrub is also often grown as a clipped hedge in communal-house and pagoda courtyards.