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Cold-pressed from the peel, with no heat and no solvent, which preserves its freshness. Its very high limonene content makes it one of the brightest oils in the range. It opens the blend on a lively note before the spices take over.

These are not seeds but flower buds, picked before they open and dried until hard. Their eugenol content is among the highest in the plant kingdom, hence the peppery, intense note. Used in China and India since antiquity, it brings the blend its spiced depth.

The spice that funded the great trade routes. It is the still-green berries, dried until they blacken, that are distilled. Its scent is dry and pungent, far less biting than ground pepper. It gives relief to the softest ingredients of the blend.

Also known as lemon balm for its smell, it is one of the hardest oils to produce: close to three tonnes of leaves go into a single kilo of oil. Its scent is lemony and honeyed, unusually soft. Its rarity makes it a precious ingredient.

A cousin of Ceylon cinnamon, but distinctly fuller-bodied: its cinnamaldehyde content passes ninety per cent, where its cousin stays below. Hence a clean, warm and peppery aroma, without the other's sugary softness. A trace is enough in a blend.