Top Notes 
Lime
Grapefruit
Cedar
Heart Notes 
Bergamot
Leather
Base Notes 
Musk03/08/2025
ArneD
14 Reviews
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ArneD
Helpful Review
5
My Havana
The Havana heat hit me like a wall as I stepped out of the air-conditioned airport building. After more than 30 years in northern Germany, I had almost forgotten what the Caribbean sun felt like on my skin. But my body remembered - it was as if the 17 years of my childhood here had just been waiting for this moment to come alive again.
My father, a German engineer, had accepted an assignment in Cuba at the time. When we moved back to northern Germany, I only took a few mementos with me - a worn baseball, a shell from the beach in Varadero and the indelible scent of this island.
The cab drove me through streets that were both strange and familiar at the same time. Colonial buildings in pastel colors, some restored, others abandoned to decay. Children played on every corner, just as they used to, as if time had stood still.
My accommodation was in a renovated house in the old town, just a few streets away from our old neighborhood. The owner, an elderly Cuban with a mischievous smile who reminded me of
Santiago from "The Old Man and the Sea", calls me "the German who is homesick." "Homesickness is like the tides - it always comes back."
I woke up early the next morning. The shutters filtered the first sunlight and the smell of freshly squeezed limes drifted in from somewhere. I showered, shaved and sprayed on a hint of my favorite perfume - Cuban Cedar & Lime by Bath House. A find from a small perfumery in Hamburg that had been with me for years. My personal talisman, my olfactory connection to Cuba.
I decided to walk to the little café that used to stand on the corner of our street. I wondered if it still existed My path led me past houses whose facades I once knew by heart. I stopped at an old cedar tree - it had grown taller, but the notches that my childhood friend Miguel and I had carved into the bark were still visible. The spicy scent of the wood mingled with my perfume, enhancing the notes I loved so much.
The café still existed, albeit under a new name. "El Cedro" was now written in squiggly letters above the entrance. When I entered, I was surrounded by the smell of freshly brewed coffee and sweet pastries. Behind the counter stood a pretty woman with her black hair tied back in a plait. She looked up, smiled, and something inside me paused.
"Bienvenido," she said. "New to Havana?"
I explained in my rusty Spanish that I had returned after a long time, and she nodded understandingly. "I'm Luisa," she introduced herself. "This was my grandparents' café. They left it to me two years ago."
While she prepared my coffee, I told her about my childhood here, about the summer evenings when my parents and I would sit at one of the tables and drink lemonade. Luisa's eyes widened. "Wait - were you the German boy with the red bike? The one who was always making up stories?"
It was as if someone had flicked a switch. Of course - Luisa! The little girl with the big, curious eyes who had always listened to our stories. She had been maybe six or seven at the time, the granddaughter of the café owners.
"I always wondered where you disappeared to," she said as she sat down at the table with me. Her smile was warm, but there was a mixture of curiosity and caution in her eyes.
And again and again, my steps took me to El Cedro, to Luisa. She had studied business administration in Miami, but had returned when her grandparents retired. "Some roots are too deep to pull out," she said one evening as we strolled along the Malecón, Havana's famous promenade.
It was that evening when she leaned towards me and paused. "What's that smell?" she asked. "It's like walking through our old garden - the lime trees, the cedar wood of the garden furniture my grandfather had built..."
I told her about my perfume and she laughed, a bright, clear laugh that mingled with the warm evening air. "You wear Havana on your skin," she said, stroking my arm gently. "No wonder I'm so attracted to you."
She showed me the Havana I was missing.
We cooked the things I missed
We told each other so much.
It was on my last evening when she gave me a small package. Inside was a hand-carved cedar wood bracelet. "So that you always have something from here with you," she said softly. "And have a reason to come back."
When I boarded the plane that would take me back to Germany, I was not only wearing this bracelet, but also Luisa's phone number and the promise to come back in three months' time.
Since then, the scent of Cuban Cedar & Lime is no longer just a memory of my childhood - it is also a promise for the future. A future that smells of lime, cedar wood, leather and Havana. Of home and of Luisa.
---
Bath House Cuban Cedar & Lime is more than just a perfume - it is a journey through time, a mediator between worlds. The first encounter is a citrus shock: sharp, juicy lime meets tart grapefruit and is balanced by the aromatic freshness of cedar in the top note. It is this opening that immediately reminds me of the morning hours in Havana when the fruit sellers prepare their fresh fruit.
A surprising complexity unfolds in the heart note. The bergamot, elegant and restrained, combines with a subtle leather note that brings to mind old suitcases, travel and adventure. It is this phase that gives the fragrance depth and sets it apart from ordinary citrus fragrances.
The base note of musk holds everything together and ensures remarkable longevity. After a long day, the fragrance is still present, albeit more restrained - like a faint memory of the morning.
What particularly impresses me: Cuban Cedar & Lime is a charismatic fragrance that nevertheless remains versatile. In the northern German winter, it brings a piece of the Caribbean to gray days, while in the heat of summer it unfolds its full freshness. It is just as suitable for business meetings as it is for relaxed evenings - a fragrance that accompanies its wearer without overwhelming them.
Although marketed as a men's fragrance, in my experience it is also suitable for women. On Luisa's skin, it releases a more delicate, almost floral note that harmonizes with her natural warmth. It is one of those rare fragrances that knows no boundaries - neither between genders nor between cultures.
The longevity is remarkable for a fresh fragrance - it remains perceptible for six to seven hours. The sillage is moderate, a personal cloud of fragrance that only those who are allowed to get close will notice.
Cuban Cedar & Lime
Thank you Luisa
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Frankcrummit
