Hey guys, Joe A. here with another one for ya'! We’ve battled tobacco. We’ve waged war in barbershops. We crowned a Booze Wars champion. Now it’s time for something sweeter… and far more dangerous!! Welcome to The Gourmand Wars: Vanilla vs Chocolate. Not fruit. Not woods. Not freshies. This is dessert ... at war !!! --- TEAM VANILLA Vanilla is comfort. Vanilla is seduction. Vanilla is warmth in the cold and confidence in the dark. But don’t mistake softness for weakness. On the Designer side, we’ve got power vanillas: spicy, tobacco-laced, amber-charged heavy hitters like Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, Mercedes-Benz Club Black, and Giorgio Armani Stronger With You Intensely just to name a few... On the Niche side? Creamy, resinous, sensual masterpieces like Parfums de Marly Althair, Giardini di Toscana Bianco Latte, and Initio Parfums Privés Absolute Aphrodisiac just to name a few... Vanilla isn’t plain. Vanilla is versatile. Vanilla is a weapon. --- TEAM CHOCOLATE Chocolate is darker. Richer. More indulgent. In the Designer division, we explore how houses interpret cacao, from nutty elegance in Valentino Uomo, to airy cacao in Jo Malone London Blue Agava & Cacao, to sweet musk comfort in Al-Rehab Choco Musk EDP, just to reveal a few contenders... But the Niche side? That’s where the gloves come off. We’re talking unapologetic chocolate domination: syrupy bombs like Montale Chocolate Greedy, bitter cacao like Akro Dark, boozy indulgence like By Kilian Black Phantom, and frosting-thick sweetness from Mancera Choco Violette just to name a few... This isn’t subtle. This is decadence done right! --- THE FORMAT 32 fragrances. 4 brackets. Designer vs Designer. Niche vs Niche. Single elimination. No mercy. No second chances. No “but it’s good for layering.” Only one note family walks away with the crown. I'LL BE ANNOUNCING THE BRACKETS IN FOLLOW UP POSTS! --- THE QUESTION Are you Team Vanilla: warmth, seduction, smooth confidence? Or are you Team Chocolate: indulgence, depth, unapologetic richness?

Hey guys, Joe A. here with another one for ya'! Another potential barrier to this hobby is information overload! Top notes. Heart notes. Base notes. Reformulations. Batch codes. Projection debates that feel like physics lectures. For newcomers, fragrance culture can feel less like a hobby and more like enrolling in a semester-long course titled Advanced Aromatic Theory 301. The language alone can be overwhelming! The irony is that fragrance is sensory before it is intellectual, right? You smell it and you either like it or you don’t. But somewhere along the way, we layered on vocabulary and metrics that, while helpful, can intimidate. Knowledge enhances appreciation, but it shouldn’t become a barrier to entry. I believe the key is progression. Learn a little at a time. Start with broad families. Notice how woods behave on your skin versus citrus. Let experience build understanding organically. The hobby should feel like discovery, or a #Journey, not an exam you forgot to study for!! What say you, guys? Did the terminology ever overwhelm you when you first started? What fragrance “concept” took you the longest to understand? And when did we all collectively agree that sillage needed to be measured like wind speed? Love to hear from ya'!