Black Cherry

A compounded dark-cherry oil. Juicy and sweet with a bitter-almond undertone from benzaldehyde, the molecule at the center of nearly every cherry note.

A compounded fragrance oil built to evoke ripe, dark sweet cherries; its supplier, The Perfumer's Apprentice, likens it to juicy Bing cherries. The fruit itself yields no extract that perfumery can use, so every cherry note is assembled from aroma chemicals. At the center of almost all of them is benzaldehyde (C₇H₆O), the bitter-almond aldehyde that also gives cherry pits and cherry flavorings their marzipan-like tone. Fruity esters and lactones round it out into juice and skin, and darker versions add vanillic or balsamic warmth for a cooked, almost liqueur-like depth. The exact formula of this oil is proprietary and unpublished. In a composition it plays a gourmand, fruity role, adding a dark sweetness rather than freshness.