Opinions on American coffee can be divided. The kind served in diners, supermarkets, or gas stations as 'bottomless' (meaning you can refill as long as you want or can) is known to be rather thin and - although kept warm on hot plates - always scalding hot. It’s no surprise that there was a huge market for Starbucks and the like to tap into, while in Europe, you can actually buy decent coffee on almost every corner (although Starbucks is always full here too). I actually quite like American coffee - even the thin kind.
Moreover, coffee is a significant part of American everyday culture. While you can do this here in Germany (and I do), it somehow feels more authentic on the other side of the Atlantic, as seen in countless films: a car. In the cupholder, a large paper cup of coffee. A road, preferably along an ocean, but if necessary, the suburban highway of a city. A pick-up on the left. A pick-up on the right. The radio. Where you only realize after half an hour that it’s actually also Christian. America.
Valour is the third fragrance from Californian designer Robert Graham, which I tried on a wonderful afternoon (with coffee!) within smelling distance of the beach and the Pacific. Like its two brothers, Fortitude and Courage, it has quite a bold name - and like them, it is ultimately a very pleasing and relaxed, undramatic scent. Thematically, it is dedicated to coffee - more everyday filter coffee than 'Double Chocolate Hazelnut Latte', as it lacks any overly pronounced sweetness, which is very pleasant. However, the coffee note is also not too bitter or too dark, but rather has a mineral quality, sometimes almost cool. Valour is - this it shares with its brothers - a distinctly masculine scent: a bit of bright herb, a little warm wood - and a hint of worn saddle leather. That doesn’t mean a woman couldn’t wear it well too. She could.
Conclusion: the car windows open and the road empty. Half a liter of coffee in the cupholder, John Denver or Johnny Cash on the radio. The spring sun on the trees and seagulls over the sea. Coffee and wood and sun. Heaven.
