One of the greatest gourmand perfumes is 2004’s Bond No. 9 New Haarlem. Early in the birth of the genre, perfumer Maurice Roucel and creative director Laurice Rahme, produced an incredible coffee-based perfume which is the gold standard. No perfume has been better. It also stood out for taking a lighter tone than the earlier gourmands. Bond No. 9 over the past few years has become a brand which has churned out perfume at a furious pace with a similarity to previous releases that I haven’t been motivated to write about.
Laurice Rahme
A few weeks ago, I received a press release for Bond No. 9 New Bond St. The name caught my attention because the neighborhood around the flagship boutique has changed a lot in the fifteen years since the brand debuted. As I continued to read I learned there was a coffee heart accord. That also made me more motivated to check in and see what this new perfume was all about. Would it live up to the greatness of New Haarlem? Would it come close? Should I really compare the two?
Carlos Benaim
Two perfumers, Carlos Benaim and Laurent Le Guernec, collaborate with Ms. Rahme for New Bond St. If I am looking for similarity to New Haarlem there is a green top accord followed by a coffee heart accord and woody base. That is selling the new perfume short. If I have been critical of an overreliance on cribbing from the past by the brand this is not one of those cases. The creative team has created a different style of gourmand which stands on its own.
Laurent Le Guernec
The top accord uses muguet as the source of green. The perfumers introduce a bit of pepper to provide a sizzle to that floral. The heart is a fancy coffee accord served up by a barista. The coffee source is described as coffee beans in the ingredient list. There is a distinction as the whole beans have an intrinsic oiliness and nuttiness more pronounced than a brewed version. The perfumers pick up on both of those by using cocoa to pick up the oils and chestnut to pick up the nutty. It comes together in a luscious coffee shop accord. It falls into a generic woody base, which has become a signature for the brand, as sandalwood and vanilla present a typical base accord.
New Bond St. has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.
Since I started this review with the comparison I’ll get it out of the way New Bond St. is not as good as New Haarlem. It is the best new release from Bond No. 9 in a few years. I am happy I took the time to check it out. It reminds me, in a positive way, of what a trend setter the brand was in its early years. If you’ve wanted a reminder of that New Bond St. should do that.
Disclosure: This review based on a sample provided by Saks.
–Mark Behnke
