Tauerama!: L’air du desert Marocain

I have to admit I’ve been a little nervous about reviewing this perfume for my Tauer giveaway (enter the drawing here) for several reasons. A: it has been reviewed often by better noses than I (although I know that’s no excuse, since I seem to have no trouble reviewing other famous scents). B: it has such a devoted following that I might alienate my readers if I say something they don’t like (not a problem, I think, since I love it as well) and C: how can I present L’air du Desert Marocain in a novel light? I thought maybe I would wait until I go on my August trip to Morocco, then talk about LDDM through my experiences there. But then I realized I couldn’t really keep you all waiting for the draw all summer. So, I’ve bitten the bullet, friends, and am sitting down to write about Andy Tauer’s most acclaimed creation.

To put this scent to the test, I invited friends over for a Spanish/Moroccan feast at my place. I decided I would wear l’air du desert all night and see how it played with the exotic food I was preparing, for, as far as I’m concerned, a fragrance needs to play nicely with food if I’m going to consider wearing it more than a few times, since my life revolves around preparing food (I throw at least one, maybe two dinner parties a week on average—it’s the only way I have found to keep the house clean and keep friends at the same time!)

The Menu?

Sherry (Manzanilla) courses

Green olives in homemade herb pesto

Black olives in homemade pepper oil

pan-toasted cumin almonds

************

Cold cream of celery and garlic soup with Zaatar croutons

************

Cold Spanish Tortilla, and sliced romaine salad with tahini-lemon dressing

************

Rioja Course

Herb-encrusted rack of lamb

whole wheat couscous with a carrot-onion-raisin tagine and brown chickpea stew

************

Riesling Course

light desert (ha, I meant dessert) of freshly picked strawberries in cream

I put on l’air du desert as I prepared to cook, wanting to interact with it as the heat from my exertion and the  oven made it rise into the air throughout the afternoon. On the right, you can see that our cat Oliver (who seems to always know when people will be coming over)was already sulking in my office.

As I cooked, the scent began to rise off my chest in a magnificent spicy steam—I reveled in it, and its influence might—just might—have made me add too many spices for my German friends’ palates.

At left, you can see some of my many pots simmering away.

As well as the Tauer masterpiece went with the pots full of legumes, onions and spices, I think it did at least as well if not better with the lovely spray roses my husband brought home—with herbs from the garden added in, the faint herbaceous notes, as well as the more assertive resinous notes of L’air du desert came to the fore.

  

As we ate the salty, dry sherry course, I sensed a little of the ambergris—here, superbly blended and ever so slightly salty—and the woody and cumin notes came forward as we ate the slightly bitter cumin-encrusted roasted almonds. 

I’m afraid at that point, I forgot to keep taking pictures,  but I assure you that this fragrance kept me feeling as happy as a clam all throughout that long, muggy dinner.

In the end, I can’t think what else to say about this besides that it is a brilliant, beautiful, dryly shimmering, round yet sharp work of genius. I loved it from beginning to end, and can’t recommend it highly enough to do it justice. It’s just love, that’s all.

At the end of the meal, my brother, a professional  cellist, played some of his original compositions for us, his admiring-and very full—audience. The L’air du desert Marocain made it heaven.

(everyone listening to David’s playing) You can hear it too if you check out his website here.

 

oh, and a pic of my husband’s sangria:

CHEERS!

CREDITS:

English: Dunes in the east of Merzouga, Morocco near the border to Algeria. Yellow light in Sahara desert. Taken by Joadl

Dans le sud marocain un reg (surface horizontale formée de cailloux de couleur noire due à des oxydes métaliiques). Dans le fond un massif sableux dunaire. Taken by Alexandrin

Both courtesy of Wikipedia Commons. All other pics mine.