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Tambour Sacré Rubini 2018

7.8 / 10 102 Ratings

A popular perfume by Rubini for women and men, released in 2018. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Resinous

Floral

Gourmand

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Black pepper

Cardamom

Orange

Calabrian bergamot

Heart Notes

Coffee absolute CO2

Sweet acacia

Tuberose absolute

Cinnamon

Base Notes

Opoponax

Mysore sandalwood

Somalian myrrh Benzoin

Benzoin

Tonka bean

Perfumer

Cristiano Canali

Ratings

Scent

7.8102 Ratings

Longevity

8.488 Ratings

Sillage

7.887 Ratings

Bottle

8.182 Ratings

Value for money

7.444 Ratings

Submitted by SirLancelot, last update on 10/11/2025.

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Reviews

6 in-depth fragrance descriptions

10/15/2022

8Scent 9Longevity 8Sillage

Kurai
388 Reviews

Kurai

5

Holy moly!

I thought gourmands were hard to swallow, but this stuff is next level. Rarely have I got such a sticky and gooey experience as with Tambour Sacré. There is not much gourmand here, though. At least not in the usual way. Even though the coffee note is very prominent, it is presented in a completely unique manner.

Right from the opening you get this dark and bitter coffee residue, with a smoky or even burnt nuance in the background. At the same time there is an immense tuberose note stumbling in and things get seriously wild when she unleashes all her indoles. After that highly dramatic start, things develop into a resinous-woody blend that gets more wearable along the way.

This one is hard to pull off in any 'real-life' situation, but for this one time it was a great experience. Anyone who is looking for an insane take on coffee, get your nose on this.

02/12/2025

8Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

Stockier
52 Reviews

Stockier

1

Spices and coffee

We start with a fresh spicy fragrance, where cardamom and orange are noticed above all else. To my pleasant surprise, I do like this cardamom, which is a plus, really.

When it dries and settles, that projection for 2 hours of "fresh spicy" mode ends, changing to "I spilled coffee on myself" mode. One of the few fragrances that say they have coffee and I do smell it. It becomes an amber, floral, almost earthy and very toasted aroma. Those floral tones are appreciated because they greatly reduce the bitterness of the coffee, they balance it so to speak.
The myrrh note is clear as water, you can quite notice that resinous incense tone but as you know in the background, just enough and necessary to accompany the rest.

Duration of 9 hours on the skin, with different levels of projection depending on the moment in which it is found, at first heavy, after the first two hours, we move on to a moderate sillage.

Completely unisex and casual when going out for a drink or meeting someone, maybe for dinner it's also cool buuuut maybe it can be a bit overwhelming if we're over a certain temperature. So fall, winter and spring and depending on the time.

In general it's changeable, because it has those green and fresh spicy tones and at the same time it has that toasted and amber coffee aroma. I definitely recommend trying it to draw your own conclusion and not something a YouTube reviewer or a random person on the internet says.

For my taste it's a bit like Winter Palace but much less soft and vanilla-like.

In short: Weird. But it smells really good. Polarizing.

03/22/2021

Art
68 Reviews

Art

A mineral woody Coffee

It is non-gourmand take on coffee. The coffee note here is very prominent from the start to the base, but there isn‘t any sweetness in it. On the contrary - there is some unusual fresh, natural, a bit “mineral” nuance that reminds me of the smell of sunflowers. And, all this is masterfully enveloped by transparent greens, spices and wood.

10/18/2020

9.5Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

Kovex
31 Reviews

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Kovex

Top Review 58

Stereotypical Thinking - Final Destination

I like challenging scents. Scents that do not immediately reveal the wide spectrum of sensations they provoke. Scents that you have to work for. That show new facets from time to time, fluctuate between poles, and challenge you. They seem to call out to me: I will reveal my qualities only when you get to know me better. What these perfumes have in common for me is mostly the unknown, something I have never smelled before. The range of the first impression is enormous. Not every one of these scents necessarily evokes the desire to test it a second time.

Tambour Sacré starts quite differently than the listed top notes might suggest. Since I like to categorize scents by colors, the contents of the bottle or its color reflect exactly what I smell: brown, here bitter, bulky, and completely unfamiliar. The stereotypical thinking ends here already, as I cannot think of any fragrance note that could be responsible for what I smell. What may have seemed disturbing during the first tests reveals itself after several wears to be a desire to have it again and again, reminding me of situations in life that one does not want to see, does not want to experience, and yet one must be fascinated and stare at them again and again, even though one does not want to.

I understand if the scent initially appears off-putting to some. The reflex of disgust is, after all, ingrained in the limbic system of our brain. The place where emotions and drives are processed. Where scents can touch or disgust us. If the smell is linked to a memory, this can quickly lead to a non-neutral sensation that counteracts the attempt at an objective assessment of the scent. However, Tambour Sacré feels so new to me that I can engage with it completely uninfluenced.

The bitterness gently and cautiously unfolds over the first half hour, making way for a light brown unsweetened mocha note that will dominate the scent in the following hours. Here, I clearly differentiate between dark black coffee and this unsweetened mocha note, which skillfully absorbs the bitter beginning, rounds it off, and makes it smoother. Comparisons to other authentic coffee scents like Awake by Akro or Mancera's Aoud Café are hardly applicable here, as the aforementioned are more reminiscent of food, to be precise, sweetened instant coffee, while Tambour Sacré eludes this categorization and aims to impress with naturally appearing, but not overly present coffee aromas that lie beyond the association with a hot beverage.

This may also be due to the tuberose, which appears here only in a homeopathic dosage and gives the scent more depth and volume. A slight fleshiness, from which the typical floral notes of the tuberose have been removed, contributes a bit of animalic quality, adding additional tension to the scent. Here it is again: the fascination of the unknown, the desire to process these new scent impressions, to categorize them, to put them into drawers. But it may not succeed, Tambour Sacré fits into no drawer.

Over the next few hours, it gradually becomes more pleasant, warmer, and milder. A tiny pinch of cinnamon and a barely hinted sweetness sneak in almost imperceptibly. Light dry woods, only hinted at, as the aroma of the also lightly roasted coffee beans remains with me for a long time.

The bottle is that simple and common model used by many smaller niche brands and differs only by the cap. A nice detail is the packaging made of two Iroko wood bowls, which is quite rare and can only be found in the tropical part of Africa, including Ethiopia (the manufacturer assures that it is made exclusively from recycled wood).

Tambour Sacré - the sacred drums of Ethiopia are also what Cristiano Canali wants to bring us closer to with his scent. A country full of exotic smells of spices and woods, whose smoke differs from the local scent of burnt wood, adding nuances that recalibrate sensory impressions.

Who would have thought that Tambour Sacré would increasingly show a conciliatory side and, after many hours, still reveal a sensual aspect that still carries something different within it, as if one were sharing a bed with a stranger.

This is exciting, even though it already makes me crave to spray again to enjoy those wonderfully bitter first minutes. No, Tambour Sacré is not simple and it certainly does not fit into any of my drawers. What remains is the fascination of the unknown and the knowledge of having found a scent that lies beyond the common fragrance taste.

06/30/2020

10Scent 10Longevity 9Sillage

Profumo
288 Reviews

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Profumo

Top Review 37

I may be a wrong-way driver..

Oh yes, I can certainly understand why this fragrance faces so much rejection: the opening is truly adventurous!
Anyone who has ever wanted to know why Frédéric Malle named his tuberose fragrance “Carnal Flower” should take a sniff of “Tambour Sacré”: the fleshy facets of this narcotic bloom could not be more pronounced. They also come to the fore in Malle's scent, but are kept in check by the entire fragrance spectrum of the tuberose - the intense floral white flower note, the carrion-like indoles, and green nuances. In “Tambour Sacré,” however, combined with an unsweetened coffee note, they break forth unrestrained, as if the carefully balanced equilibrium in the tuberose cosmos has suddenly shifted. Apparently, the dark-sour smelling coffee eliminates large parts of the floral kaleidoscope here, leaving the tuberose strangely naked, almost corporeal, indeed “carnal.” Even the squeaky pink chewing gum hints stand out quite unpleasantly without the robe that normally envelops them, exuding a penetrating hairspray aroma - all of this must be endured!

I admit, this is difficult, because this opening, this clash of the two main players that are supposed to shape the entire fragrance journey of “Tambour Sacré,” truly presents a challenge.
It doesn’t smell nice, at least not in the sense of ‘harmonious,’ ‘pleasant,’ or ‘gentle.’ No, this collision of harsh coffee and diva-like tuberose resembles more an olfactory slaughter, casting both contenders in an unflattering light. While they may smell wonderful on their own, here they do not smell good, neither the coffee nor the flower.
Fortunately, however, more players enter the stage and put an end to the confrontational antics. Cardamom and cinnamon soothingly season the coffee, bitter-skin fruits and the sweet scent of acacia pull the hysterically behaving tuberose from the battlefield.

The full, warm base, shaped by resins, woods, and balsams, does the rest, and the roosters calm down increasingly. After about an hour, a complex, dark-toned, herb-spicy, and only slightly sweet oriental aroma has developed, which for a change manages without the obligatory vanilla and trendy oud.
Now “Tambour Sacré” smells wonderful! And as if to compensate me for all the previous inconveniences, the fragrance, thanks to its Extrait de Parfum concentration, lasts an eternity.
Normally, I am not a fan of endlessly long-lasting fragrances, but in this case, I really have to make an exception, because this uniquely beautiful oriental, with the now reconciled tuberose-coffee duo in its heart, I can enjoy hour after hour.

The team around Andrea Bissoli Rubini, perfumer Cristiano Canali, and product designer Francesca Gotti has created another amazing fragrance after “Fundamental,” which, however, requires even more effort to appreciate than its predecessor. “Fundamental” was already a rather complex character with its strong, fruity-waxy grape accord, but in terms of difficulty, “Tambour Sacré” goes several steps further.
For me, this is art, truly great, admittedly modern fragrance art. However, it is such that I cannot recommend it by any means. I could just about recommend “Fundamental,” provided the recipient has an open nose for an unusual fragrance adventure. With “Tambour Sacré,” however, I know that I would encounter complete incomprehension - at least temporarily, the fragrance is an olfactory hell ride that I would not wish upon anyone.
And yet, I may be a wrong-way driver and believe that everyone else is going the wrong way: I like everything about “Tambour Sacré,” even the quirky opening.

In the meantime, I have found that the more often I wear the fragrance, the more I look forward to this wild start: to the unleashed tuberose that screeches into the freshly brewed, unspiced, and unsweetened coffee - magnificent!!!

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