Kayu Kretek Batak Edition N•O•A•M 2025

Travel writers write about distant lands and allow those who would never have the opportunity to undertake such a journey to partake in the experience of the faraway. At the same time, they transform what is experienced in the distance into art, creating an additional layer of access and enjoyment by not providing a purely objective description of reality, but rather a portrayal of subjective sensations in the face of that reality. The small Swiss label N.O.A.M. sees itself as an olfactory travel agency and indeed creates something quite comparable, not with the means of literature but with those of perfumery: Imaginary or actually experienced journeys, the olfactory impression of a specific place at a specific time, serve as the starting point for consistently extraordinary fragrance experiences, allowing the fragrance lover to partake in the sensations of distant worlds. This could be a morning in Port-au-Prince in 1975, an ecstatic flight over an imagined "Lake Ambergris," or the "On The Road" of the Beat Poets. New Oceans and Meridians. Great nose cinema. Again and again. And it is like real travel: when you truly immerse yourself in it, you learn something new about humanity and deepen your understanding of the world.

With "Kayu Kretek," we find ourselves in the west of Sumatra in 2011. Whether the specific year indicates a real journey or is part of a fiction is left open in the description. However, the detailed script provides such a vivid picture that one may assume that concrete experiences have been translated into a fragrance: "It is late afternoon when we arrive at a small village in West Sumatra. An old man plays his guitar at the bus station. The sweet scent of cloves and tobacco wafts through the humid air. We walk through the small village and admire the richly decorated wooden houses of the Batak. Fresh spices are roasted over the campfire. Behind the village, the jungle begins, preparing for the tropical night in the twilight."

Although "Kayu Kretek" was originally released in 2022 in the regular, non-limited line of the house, it was already noted at that time that slight variations may occur in new batches due to the partly hard-to-obtain raw materials (especially the Oud oils, all sourced from Indonesia). The newly created special edition "Kayu Kretek Batak," however, represents a conscious reinterpretation. The stated goal: clearly recognizable "Kayu Kretek," but fuller, deeper, more touching. The perfumer wanted to incorporate his accumulated experience and new technical knowledge into a more mature version of the early work: "In recent years, I have learned a lot about raw materials, resins, and maceration techniques - all of this should flow into a limited Kayu Kretek version." Thanks to generous samples from N.O.A.M., I had the opportunity to test and compare both versions in parallel.

Kayu. Kretek. Batak. Kayu is the Indonesian word for wood - prominently represented in the fragrance by a whole range of exquisite Oud and sandalwood components; Kretek or Sigaret Kretek are the typical "clove cigarettes" of Indonesia, which enjoyed a certain popularity here until they were banned in the EU in 2016; the Batak, on the other hand, are an indigenous people in Sumatra. But one thing at a time.

The fragrance immediately radiates an intense brightness, which I am already familiar with from many scents of the house and which, in my opinion, speaks to the high quality of the natural ingredients. Compared to the first version, where the slightly sour citrus of lime is more dominant in the opening, the Batak version presents itself from the start with an almost balsamic spiciness. It has certainly been a good quarter-century since I last smelled a Kretek cigarette, but the association becomes unmistakable here as well. However, it is in a gentler way than in the first version. For his reinterpretation of the central Kretek accord, the perfumer conducted further research on the flavoring processes of Indonesian cigarettes and accordingly supplemented the formula with new ingredients. Overall, the clove seems to be somewhat less dominant in the "Batak," with tobacco and a more differentiated spiciness taking center stage. Nevertheless, one should still enjoy clove if one engages with this fragrance. I personally like it very much, and I also find that it complements the high-quality Ouds very well. Because now the woods gradually reveal themselves, along with patchouli, vetiver, both also from Indonesia. All in all, a wonderfully complex, spicy-woody fragrance. And unlike in other fragrances that have the theme of Kretek cigarettes (e.g., Clove Cigarette Perfume), we do not have them here pure, but rather embedded in their natural habitat.

Which version is more beautiful can be decided by each person for themselves. Personally, the Batak edition seems a bit warmer to me, indeed somewhat softer, rounder, more flattering. A slight shift from the green-brown to the yellow-brown spectrum, perhaps due to a certain restraint of the citrus and the cool notes, such as anise, fennel, and sage, which played a larger role in the first version? They may only be nuances, and it is not easy to pinpoint because one has the impression that the fragrance presents itself a little differently with each spray, each test. But in direct comparison, one senses in the fine differences the unwavering will to challenge and shift boundaries, the high ambition to perfect an already very expressive fragrance once again.

The perfected fragrance is complemented by a perfected bottle. Not that the first one, with the Sumatra tiger on the lovingly hand-drawn label, was not already very beautiful in its simplicity. But comparing the two would probably be unfair anyway, as this one is more of an independent work of art than just a container. And the bottle now indeed explicitly brings the Batak into play and invites the eye on a journey as well.

After the artist Barbara Josfeld had already created congenial bottle artworks for the special editions of Le Vent des Îles Collector's Edition and most recently "Apéro Riviera Collector's Edition | N•O•A•M," she surpasses herself this time. The bottle of "Kayu Kretek Batak" is a sculpture, an interpretation of the fragrance, a stage set for the scent story that is told here. Again, the approach is entirely individual, the design perfectly tailored to the fragrance. After the powerful natural force ("Le Vent des Îles") and simple abstraction ("Apéro Riviera"), the approach here is inspired by the architecture of the Toba Batak in the region around Lake Toba in Sumatra. Characteristic elements of this architecture are the gabled roof with a dramatically curved ridge and the sharply raised, ornately decorated gable fields.

(...) That has not happened to me yet. The signs are not enough. Therefore, further in the answers.