Charuto House of Orpheus 2015

Charuto slept on hay sacks or old wooden boxes and rolled stubs from cigar remnants. I had almost forgotten him. In one of the old dark alleys, the bitter-sharp lanterns buzzed light beams of valerian into his veiled eyes. His dress made of mulchy tobacco, tattered, was poured over his leather face, beginning to flow over the sweetish skin, the patina of lichens and mosses, the spicy barks that had to wither, the raisin crumbs in the earthy crusts. I could not take my eyes off it.
***
Marcus R. McCoy, perfumer and operator of House of Orpheus, claims to have acquired the language of plants from shamans and the craft of distillation from the origins of alchemy. His creations move beyond the physical, crossing the liminal boundaries. He writes hymns to Greek gods and burns incense for them. Sometimes, perhaps, also cigars.
"Charuto" (port.: cigar) begins with the bitter-sharp, valerian-like notes of castoreum, which reveals its leathery aromas only in the heart from initially aromatic-spicy tobacco as well as slightly smoky-earthy and minimally fruity notes of oud. As the tobacco increasingly develops towards sweet-warm, almost damp-mossy aromas, the woods become deeper and darker, taking on more of the character of barks. The encounter with Charuto is strangely confusing, aromatic-spicy, and dirty-seductive, moderate but long-lasting.