Juchten Bernoth 1930 Eau de Cologne

Episode I of this series was still dedicated to a fragrance called only "Russian". Whether this meant the leather of the same name or not remained open, even after the sniffing.

With this scent now it becomes clearer. Yuck. Alias Juchtenleder, Juften, Russischleder, Russisch Juchten, Cuir de Russie, Russian Leather and and and. So it's hard to avoid a few words about what Juchtenleder is or at least what it was in the original language, even if I'm not the first to comment on it in this forum. Namely a vegetable-tanned (with birch or willow bark) fine cowhide leather, which was impregnated waterproof by rubbing it with birch tar oil. The main country of production was formerly Russia, hence the name. From the different types of Juchten, mainly boots, horse harnesses and wallets were produced. The typical smell, allegedly "like smoked bacon" comes primarily from birch tar oil, not from leather. Meyers Conversations-Lexicon knew all this already in 1888, and since then everybody quotes from it, up to Wikipedia.

Countless great fragrances have been inspired by this scent (and the name in all its varieties). And some small ones too, like this one. If I think about it, I only know one so far, namely Russisch Juchten by Harry Lehmann, which is one of my favourite scents and which I would describe as cracking masculine chypre. He has nothing to do olfactorically with this Bernoth-Juchten here. With crispy bacon and egg, the two have rather little in common. Perhaps "smoked bacon" also means a 50 kilo un-fried piece hanging from the ceiling of the barn with shiny rind; but my memories of the smell are too long ago. I have also never (consciously) smelled birch tar oil pure. So I am at a loss and have to work out what all these Russian leathers have in common.

Juchten is quite strong and durable for a cologne. It is a somewhat coarsely assembled scent without too fine transitions, but of some complexity. At the beginning I take a bouquet of rather surprising notes, especially a spicy soapy one, a warm flowery one (not to be confused with warm flowery ones) and a peppermint one. Unfortunately, there's also a strangely musty foreign note (similar to the one in Wasch-Cologne of the same brand), which oscillates between moist tobacco, wet dog and, yes, it has to come out again: meat sausage (but this time without marjoram). Here I wanted to tear this smell in itself already completely.

After about twenty minutes, however, Juchten stabilizes on the skin, as if the individual somewhat disparate notes had sorted themselves. Then he is clearly more pleasing. Now a nice spicy, warm clove note can be detected, and the meat sausage has actually become something like leather. The whole thing is underlaid with a freshness that leaves no question about the cologne character. Yet for me - contrary to the statements made by Fabistinkt and aftershave - it's not a fragrance that I really like at the end of the day. The 6.5 points are still rather generous. Too bad.

Whether this Bernoth-Juchten has not quite succeeded, or whether I simply don't like this scent direction, later tests of similarly designed scents from other manufacturers will show. I will find a second use for the extremely low-priced 200 ml bottle, which I do not consider to be worth its price. As far as the medium-sized fragrance company Schmitt is concerned, it should be noted that the first product I tested, Maravilla-Cologne, remained the only highlight. After that, there were only whole (Bernoth Wasch-Cologne, Elasco Aftershave) and half (Bernoth Lavendel Cologne and this fragrance here) disappointments.

Но Россия большая, и серия продолжается!