Tonka Bean

Tonka bean is the seed of Dipteryx odorata, a tall tree of the Amazon and Orinoco basins, and it smells of hay, toasted almond and vanilla with a dry thread of tobacco. Its scent comes almost entirely from coumarin, the molecule that was first found in it.

Where it comes from

The tree belongs to the pea family and grows wild across northern South America; Venezuela and Brazil are the main producers. The ripe fruits fall and are gathered from the forest floor, then cracked open with a stone or hammer to free a single seed, black and wrinkled outside and pale within. Traditionally the dried beans were soaked in rum or strong alcohol and dried again, until a frost of white coumarin crystals formed on their skins. For perfumery they are solvent-extracted into an absolute.

The coumarin story

In 1820 chemists in Munich and in France each isolated a fragrant crystal from tonka; the French pharmacist Guibourt named it coumarine, after coumarou, a French name for the bean that comes from the Tupi language. In 1868 the English chemist William Henry Perkin made it in the laboratory, and in 1882 Houbigant’s Fougère Royale paired it with lavender and oakmoss. That perfume is often cited as one of the first to use a synthetic material, and it gave its name to the fougère, or fern, family.

What it smells like

Tonka is warm and round: a little almond, a little vanilla custard, some dried hay and a dry, tobacco-like edge that keeps it from turning to pudding. The same coumarin gives drying grass its sweetness, which is why tonka sits so naturally beside hay. The beans have long been used to flavour pipe tobacco, and the family resemblance is easy to smell.

How perfumers use it

Tonka belongs to the base, where it softens and joins. It is at home in amber, fougère and tobacco accords and pairs well with leather, vanilla and woods. Perfumers use both tonka absolute and coumarin itself, and coumarin is restricted by IFRA, the International Fragrance Association, because it can sensitise the skin of some people.

In the kitchen the picture varies. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has treated food containing tonka as adulterated since 1954, because of its coumarin; in France and elsewhere it is still grated over desserts and infused into creams.

In our fragrances

In Saddle Room, tonka bean lies in the base with creamy sandalwood and a leather accord, beneath a heart of hay absolute, suede and the faintest smoke of birch tar. It is the warmth of the tack room once the lantern is lit: soft, a little sweet and never sugary. For the rest of that drydown, see our note on leather.

All the notes