Pantone’s colour of the year for 2025 is ‘mocha mousse’ – a colour that they say, “extends our perception of brown, crossing from the humble and earthbound to the luxurious and aspirational”. I’m not exactly sure how I perceive brown and whether Pantone will change my mind about it, but I do know that I am very much here for all things coffee and coffee-inspired, and it seems that fragrance industry is too.
There’s been a huge amount of buzz in recent years about the neo-gourmand trend hitting in the industry, with tons of scents boasting unconventional, not typically sweet gourmand notes. Well now, I think we’re seeing somewhat of an extension of that trend in the sheer number of coffee fragrances launched in 2025. A coffee micro-trend, perhaps?
What I find particularly fascinating about this trend for coffee is just how universal it is, spanning the gulf that exists between affordable celebrity fragrances to luxury scents with price tags so eye-watering one would likely have to re-mortgage or marry rich just to afford them. But this is the thing, coffee crosses all boundaries, it’s something enjoyed by millions of people in every country across the globe. It traverses different cultures and can be served in thousands of different ways.
In celebration of the 2025 coffee micro/trend, consider me your olfactory barista and today I’m serving coffee six different ways.
Sweet Tooth Me Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter (£39.99/75ml Eau de Parfum)
Celebrity fragrances are having somewhat of a renaissance, thanks in part to icons of the moment such as Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and now, Sabrina Carpenter, creating scents they actually give a damn about. Me Espresso is one such example and whilst it would be super easy to discount the blue chocolate bar bottle as yet another cynical celeb scent cashing in on the titular stars currently meteoric fame, it certainly wouldn’t be fair.
Me Espresso does exactly what it sets out to: it smells like a fresh coffee. Boasting a creamy Cappuccino accord created using dsm-firmenich’s smell-the-taste technology, Me Espresso perfectly captures the scent of a warm, milky coffee, blending the lactonic with the bitter to create something photorealistic. White flowers, caramel and musk are weaved in to create a sugary-clean airiness that’s evokes crisp wafer. It’s like wearing a cappuccino and a stroopwafel at the same time. Is it completely nuts? Yes. Is it the most fun you’ll have for £39.99? Also yes.
Opal by Boadicea the Victorious (£900/100ml Extrait de Parfum)
We now move from the ridiculous to the sublime with a fragrance that costs a whole £860.01 more than Sabrina’s delightful espresso: Opal by Boadicea the Victorious. Created by Robertet perfumer Julie Lerendu (Aqualis Mother of Pearl, Nancy Meiland Lupin Meadow) Opal showcases a feast of high-quality ingredients, one of which is a richly spiced coffee accord.
The fragrance centres around the interplay of rose and patchouli, with a rich, velvety dusting of iris and waxy cocoa butter. The coffee accord is delicate, soft and subtle, acting more as an accent. It’s enveloped by the iris in such a way that it appears as a generous dusting of coffee powder atop a chocolate rose. Yes, it’s as delicious as it sounds, but for that price it better be, am I right?! This one’s for those who simply must have the most boujee coffee on the market.
Ta’if Rose by Jo Malone London (£138/50ml Cologne Intense)
Some things are just made to go together and roses and coffee are two such things. Jo Malone London’s Ta’if Rose uses Headspace technology to capture the scent of the roses that grow at the foot of the Ta’if mountains in Saudi Arabia. It would be just one of the many deliciously jammy, fruity rose out there if it weren’t for that special relationship between coffee and rose.
At the heart of Ta’if Rose is a delightfully bitter, dark, and toasted accord of roasted coffee. The slightly burned, sharp facets of this accord bring a beautifully rich contrast to all of that sugary rose, whilst the roasted quality amplifies the sweet, malty facets. It brings a little olfactory shock midway through the development that makes one do a double take. Rose and coffee in perfect harmony.
Coffea by Jil Sander (£190/100ml Eau de Parfum)
Fashion brand Jil Sander’s new fragrance collection ‘Olfactory Series 1’ is a streamlined fusion of technology and botany that presents modern, complex fragrances rooted firmly in nature. Taking a mixed media approach, with upcycled natural materials alongside aroma chemicals, the collection showcases the beauty of the natural world in unconventional ways.
Coffea, created by (Amouage , Maison Crivelli ), aims to capture the essence of a room, rather than the scent of coffee. It fizzes with soft aldehydes, evoking the sense of a rush of people on a sunny morning, then with CO2 extracted coffee beans and El Salvadorian peru balsam, it creates the olfactory image of wood imbued with the scent of coffee over time. It’s a soft, powdery take on coffee with a warming woody touch.
Devotion Pour Homme by Dolce & Gabbana (£83/50ml Eau de Parfum)
Picture this: you’re sat outside a café in the centre of Milan. The sun is shining, and you sit there with a newspaper and an espresso, gazing into the distance and listening to the gentle hum of traffic zipping by. Vespas fizzing along the hot tarmac. The breeze carries the intense scent of freshly roasted coffee pouring out of the door of the café. You have not a care in the world, and you ask yourself “is this heaven?”.
The answer is no, it’s Dolce & Gabbana Devotion Pour Homme. It may not have been the answer you’re looking for, but it is delightful nonetheless. Created by perfumer (Mugler , YSL , ) Devotion Pour Homme is a simple ode to coffee that perfectly captures the warm, toasted scent of freshly roasted coffee beans. A squeeze of lemon adds a touch of freshness whilst a dash of patchouli brings a green, leafy quality, and enough abstraction to ensure that Devotion smells like coffee but not too much like it. Blissful.
Terre d’Hermès Eau de Parfum Intense by Hèrmes (£85/50ml Eau de Parfum)
’s Terre d’Hèrmes is a fascinating essay on earth and minerals, told through citrus, flint, vetiver and cedar. It is ochre-coloured dust made smell and certainly not an obvious choice for a gourmand flanker, but that’s exactly what Hermès’ in-house perfumer has done. With Terre d’Hermès Intense, Nagel has given the iconic Hèrmes masculine a deliciously volcanic twist.
The Terre here is not the dusty earth of the dessert, instead it’s the gritty, igneous ground surrounding a deep fissure filled with lava. But where does the coffee come in? Great question! Creating that sense of ashy, dark rock is the interplay between inky, roasted coffee and salty liquorice. The result is a truly novel take on coffee that really takes the note out of the café context, driving it deep into the soil.
Thomas Dunckley
Fragrance Expert, Copywriter, Trainer, Speaker, Podcast/Event Host, known as Making Scents Make Sense on social media and on perfumetok.
thomasdunckley
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