Eau Parfumée au Thé Rouge Bvlgari (2006)

by: Dr. Marlen Elliot Harrison

This is another in a series of bargain fragrance reviews, scents that may be found online or at discount stores for US $25 or less. Leave a comment below for your chance to receive a sample, shipped anywhere in the world, free!

Summary: Thé Rouge (red tea), Bvlgari’s third and final eau parfumée after 1992’sThé Vert (green tea) and 2003’s Thé Blanc (white tea), is a discontinued fragrance with excellent longevity that is built around notes of red Roiboos tea, Yunnan tea, pepper, walnut and fig. Thé Rouge is actually most similar to its white tea predecessor—light, fresh and somewhat musky—but this time with a peppery, near-gourmand edge.

Perfumer: Olivier Polge

Try this if you like: Realistic, unsweetened tea aromas; fig (fruit); tree nuts such as almond or walnut; pink pepper in general (there’s a significant amount here); Bvlgari’s other tea scents.

Pros & Cons: Firstly, this scent has impressive longevity but subtle sillage after its first hour. And when all the world’s tea scents seem to be citric reinterpretations of each other, Thé Rouge stands apart. Housed in a stunning scarlet-tinged bottle, this one is easily unisex.

Thé Rouge seems to be polarizing; people either love it or hate it. I imagine the pink pepper at the opening might put some folks off as might the slightly bitter fig, especially paired with the walnut note. I’ve often heard, “Great for a candle, not great for a perfume.” Discontinued, so best to grab a bottle while it’s still around … and still affordable.

Notes: “Orange, bergamot, pink pepper, Roiboos tea, Yunnan tea, Fig, Walnut, Musk.”—Fragrantica.com

Reminds me of: Bvlgari Au Parfumée Thé Blanc, Dune pour Homme, Chopard Madness, Armani Onde Extase, Shiseido Dignita, Bottega Veneta Eau Legere

Designer’s Description: N/A, discontinued.

Number of times tested: 100+ over the last 10 years.

Number of sprays applied for this review: Two sprays to the back of hand from a bottle I purchased.

Fragrance strength: Eau de Cologne

Development: (Linear / Average / Complex) Thé Rouge offers a simple, though noticeable, development from citrus, to nutty tea, to powdery musk.

Longevity: (Short / Average / Long-lasting) It’s surprising; though only an eau de cologne, this one wears more like an eau de toilette. Heck, it has better longevity than some of my eau de parfums.

Sillage: (A Little / Average / A Lot) While noticeable upon initial application, I often have a hard time smelling this on me after drydown. However, just when I think it has disappeared, voilà! It’s back!

Note about the packaging: The bottle and packaging remain the same as the original green and white tea colognes, this time the bottle is transparent with red tinges and housed in a red, paper box.

Where can I buy it? Found online for as little as $25 USD for a 50 ml EDC.

The Bottom Line: Once upon a time in the early 1990s, two aromas became fragrance trends that lasted a good twenty years. Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena(Au Parfumée Thé Vert, 1992) introduced the world to the “green tea accord” that became a major theme for years to come (cemented in fame thanks to Morillas’s and Fremont’s ck One). Around the same time, Olivia Giacobetti introduced us to another innovative perfumery note, this time for L’Artisan (Premier Figuier, 1994) and Diptyque (Philosykos, 1996): the fig! It was only a matter of time then until these trends should merge in fragrances like Tonatto’s Carthusia Io, de Nicolai’s Fig Tea, and Turner’s Trussardi Python for Men. For Bvlgari’s third au Parfumée outing, Polge combined these two trends and as such Thé Rouge seems somewhat dated, á la temps perdu (from a lost time).

I remember my first experience with the original and now nearly forgotten Thé Vert(green tea), working hard to figure out what it was and why I didn’t love it. There was something rather dirty about it that just irked me. With the Thé Vert Extreme, I came to feel this note even more profoundly, but somehow, by that point in my scented career, I was enamored with it. In the early 2000s, when I had been living in Japan and Kansai airport was my regular travel hangout, the Thé line by Bvlgari began its expansion. First there was Thé Blanc. So excited was I by this new launch that I immediately purchased it in duty free and can remember sitting in one of Kansai Airport’s large terminals spraying on my new aroma. Oh how travel and scent do create strong memories! My love for the white tea didn’t last long as every time I wore it I was reminded of my 14-hour, turbulent flight across the Pacific, trapped in a window seat next to a flatulent baby and unable to sleep. I now think twice when wearing scent during travel.

Unsurprisingly, my intro to red tea was also in Kansai airport. This time my purchase got packed in my backpack, passed over by an opportunity to test out the newly reformulated Eau d’Hermes. Humorously, my travel companion’s response to the Hermès was, “That just might possibly be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever smelled.” I’ve never been back to it since.

Although I enjoyed my initial time with Thé Rouge, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I revisited it and rekindled my appreciation for this little oddity. While I first thought of it as a “nuttier, less floral white tea” that didn’t really go anywhere during winter’s chill, Thé Rouge somehow became juicier, spicier and more intoxicating in the summer’s warmth. Imagine Dune for Men but sweeter and with more depth, or the new Bottega Veneta eau Legere but with figs instead of flowers.

Thé Rouge opens with an almost imperceptible orange paired with an airy bergamot. This immediately gives way to a peppery warmth that leads to the fig fruit, quite restrained and understated. The tea and walnut anchor the aroma in a powdery cloud of soft musk. It’s that simple. And more strikingly, it really does smell like a sachet of loose roiboos tea as its dipped into steaming water. I love it and have to have a bottle in my collection at all times.

So why is it the only one of the three au Parfumée scents to have been discontinued? Is it too similar to the real thing? Too spicy due to the pepper? Too much like food with the nutty base? Grab a bottle and see for yourself. At around $25 USD and sometimes less on auction sites, if tea and fig are your thing, you might love it!