THE PYRAMID OF NOTES

Similarities between perfumes and cocktails

There are many similarities between perfume and cocktails. One of the main ones is probably their structure.

To analyse the structure of a perfume, the perfumer refers to the Pyramid of Notes or the Pyramid of Perfumes, an empirical method used to describe and describe and categorize a fragrance. It consists of visualizing a composition in a pyramidal scheme divided into three parts: the top of the pyramid, the heart (or middle), and the base.

Perfumes are composed of individual notes (aromas, scents…) that belong to a family (citrus family, floral family, woody, spicy, and so on) which are either top notes, heart notes, or based notes (depending on their volatility), and they each belong to a relative part of the pyramid. 

Top notes are the most volatile and the first notes you smell when spraying a bottle of perfume. They last around 15 minutes, up to an hour, and then evaporate. Citrus aromas and some aromatic herbs like mint, thyme, basil, are considered top notes.

Heart notes come next and have medium volatility, meaning they will stay on you for a few hours (up to 8 hours) and then evaporate. Most floral notes, fruit, and spices are considered heart notes. 

As the heart evaporates, you get to the base notes, which are virtually non-volatile, meaning they could eventually stay on you even for a couple of days. Dark spices like vanilla, resins, woody, musky, and earthy aromas are examples of base notes. Base notes add length to a composition as they interact with heart and top notes, dragging them down and making them last longer. In conclusion, they do some pretty cool things, even if added in tiny amounts. 

In a nutshell, the pyramid of perfumes functions as a roadmap, where when spraying a fragrance, you will get the bright, fresh, citrusy aromas first, followed by smooth floral and spice notes, ending up in dark, woody, musky aromas. It can be quite a journey. 

However, the pyramid of perfumes has its flaws. The first problem with categorizing aromas is that most scents will likely belong to more than one layer of the pyramid, depending on their intensity. For example, some scents might be both top and mid notes, or mid and base notes.

Moreover, individual scents interact with each other. For example, base notes can help anchor down top and heart notes and make them last longer, or even make them come back hours after they have actually ‘evaporated’. One notable example of this is the combination of oakmoss and bergamot, where in some fragrances, when bergamot is combined with oakmoss, comes back as a base note hours after it has actually evaporated. 

You may also argue that it is a triangle, not a pyramid. That’s true, and I don’t have an answer for that! 

Lastly, when you spray a bottle of perfume, you will, of course, get a pretty clear idea of how the perfume smells from start to finish, detecting all top, mid, and base notes together. The point here is that perfume evolves over time, and some notes will reveal their most subtle nuances later than others, but not necessarily divided into three distinct layers.

But why use the pyramid of perfumes? It is yet a really good way to describe a perfume, dividing and arranging its structure in a way that makes sense. It helps understand how the perfume evolves over time and functions as a roadmap for how you want your fragrance to become when creating a perfume. It is incredibly useful when creating and describing a composition. 

How do we translate this to drinks? 

The concept of the volatility of aromatic compounds applies to everything aromatic, of course. When tasting or smelling something (let’s say a whisky, a gin martini, a perfume, etc.), the order in which we perceive the individual aromas depends on their volatility and how dominant they are in the composition (or drink!). 

When you sip on something, you won’t get hit by its full aromatic profile at the same time, but rather, you will experience the individual flavours in order, kind of in layers, depending on how dominant and volatile they are. It kind of works like in the pyramid of notes for perfumes. It is just a much shorter experience, as the perception of flavour pretty much happens during each sip.

Gin is a really good example, as it carries even more similarities with perfumes. Gin is composed of different botanicals distilled in neutral grain spirit (or similar). Those botanicals are normally a mix of citrus peels, spices, herbs, flowers, fruits, roots, etc. — sounds familiar with the pyramid of notes and perfume families?

If a gin carries enough complexity, when tasting it neat (perhaps chilled down) you will get through a journey of flavours starting from the most vibrant and volatile citrus notes, through fresh floral, spicy and herbal notes, and finishing it up with the darker, earthy and woody aromas. It should evolve in your glass and on your palate, rather than sensing all those botanicals at the same time. The same happens when you mix different ingredients in a cocktail.

It is, again, like a roadmap of flavours, and creating it makes the difference between an ‘average’ product and one that carries different layers and depths of flavours (without being necessarily overloaded with ingredients).

Let’s stop now and think about the citrus twist the bartender squeezes on top of drinks like Martinis, Manhattan, Negroni, etc. That is a perfect example of Top Notes in cocktails.

The citrus peel expressed on top of any drink only lasts for a few sips, however, it greatly affects the overall flavour of the cocktail. It will add an initial fresh citric bite, brightening up all the other flavours, and adding an extra layer, therefore changing our final perception of the flavour. Try having a Perfect Manhattan (crap drink, I know) with an orange twist and without an orange twist — you’ll see it makes a huge difference, not only on the nose. The orange twist lifts up all other flavours and even a Perfect Manhattan becomes drinkable.

Top, Heart and Base Notes in Cocktails

We said that perfumes evolve over time. When applied to your skin (or clothes), they normally last for at least a few hours, and their scent may (significantly) change during their lifespan. We have seen this has to do with the volatility of the individual aromatic molecules used in a specific perfume.

But what about drinks? Drinks on the other hand have a very short life. We consume them quickly, but most importantly, the perception of aroma and taste pretty much goes for a few seconds at the most, while we sip on it. Even a drink with a long aftertaste will still disappear rather quickly on our tastebuds (at least compared with perfume!).

Yet, we can apply the same notion of the pyramid of perfumes to drinks. In short, any ingredient that possesses aroma (whether it is a spirit, a liqueur, a syrup, cordial, tincture, fruit juice, etc.) will be composed of different aromatic molecules, which will have different volatility, intensity and impact on each recipe, therefore pretty much the same rules will apply.

For every fresh, vibrant, volatile flavour, you may need a darker and lower one to balance it out; imagine having a drink that opens up bright and fresh with a lovely aromatic note that eventually dissipates quickly and leaves you with a bland drink with no backbone.

Base notes-types ingredients may help give length to your drink and make some of the most subtle aromas come through and linger on the palate.

Most of the time a variety of top, mid and/or base notes will be already contained in your spirits (especially if you work with gin — but also think of all the floral, fruity, woody, leathery, notes of spirits like whisky, etc.), and you might just want to manipulate and add to that structure using few complementary ingredients (liqueur, mixers, syrups, juice, bitters, etc.) to create a new cocktail.

This is where the Pyramid of Perfumes, and notions from Perfumery Art in general become helpful. They help us analyse how different flavours interact together, how we perceive them, and how we can arrange them in a balanced and harmonious way to create our drink.

Of course, when working with perfumes we only care about our product's olfactory aspect. On the other hand, our perception of drinks is mainly a combination of olfaction and taste, as the bartender will work with ingredients that possess both aroma and taste. We discussed this better in the previous articles. 

The bottom line here is that the individual components of our ingredients will be perceived in a specific way at a specific time; they will interact with one another to add length and anchor down flavours, but most importantly, our drink will evolve on our palate — although for a short period of time — and, with the Pyramid of Perfumes, we can help to visualize such roadmap of flavours (meant as aroma + taste) when creating and describing a new creation.