Tonka Eau de Parfum

Naming a fragrance after a single material sets a test, and Franck Boclet Tonka Eau de Parfum passes it by surrounding the bean with things that make it legible rather than by shouting about it. Tonka bean is sweet hay and dried grass with a bitter edge, and it is unmistakable in the base here, sitting with peru balsam, which adds a dark resinous warmth like something between syrup and smoke, and sandalwood, which keeps the whole thing creamy and soft. That is the destination, and it is a good one.

Getting there is more interesting than expected. Fig leaf opens it green, bitter and rubbery, ginger gives a dry rooty heat, and lemon cuts across the pair of them with a clean zest. It is a sharp, almost savoury start for a fragrance that ends up this warm. The middle does the handover. Almond brings a soft nuttiness that chimes with the tonka without duplicating it, white peach adds a gentle fuzzy sweetness, and cedarwood runs a dry line underneath so the sweetness never becomes syrupy.

From 2015, this is one of the more wearable bottles in the collection and a sensible first purchase from the house. As an eau de parfum it gives seven or eight hours, sits close after the opening and is detectable on a jumper the next day. It wears unisex, autumn and winter suit it best, and it works for the office as easily as for an evening.

Its maker is Franck Boclet, a Paris designer who has had his own menswear label since 2011 and spent the years before that directing other houses. His perfumes are organised as single subject compositions, around two dozen of them now, with the more concentrated Rock and Riot line and the Goldenlight range completing the picture.