Jousset Parfums is a brand fully dedicated to gourmand fragrances. They smell mostly like desserts ready to eat, from a glass of Nutella to a vanilla cake, from popcorn to pistachio ice-cream. The perfume “African Queen” is currently the only one where the title reveals nothing about the scent notes.
“Café Affogato” by Jousset Parfums evokes high expectations in any gourmand lover, and they are not disappointed. The perfume is part of the new “LES DELICES DE Jousset” collection. Not all perfumes in the collection have the same high standard as far as I can assess it, but “Café Affogato” is everything one can hope for. One smells deep rich Italian coffee, espresso probably, with a rich chocolate note, combined with sweet caramel and vanilla.
To be honest, the perfume smells to me not exactly like a café affogato tastes. The dessert is made from hot espresso and naturally cold vanilla ice-cream. The hot espresso “drowns” (Italian word: affogare) the ice-cream and the mixture is then eaten with a spoon.
To me its smell is like the taste of a café bombon or a café cortado. In that recipe a glass is at the bottom liberally filled with sweet condensed milk. Not the milk usually put into a coffee here in the Northern hemisphere, but the one known in the European South, and especially in South America. One can find it here in better supermarkets. The sweet condensed milk can be eaten with a spoon, but it is more liquid than ice-cream. When you put the espresso on top, the two do not mingle automatically. Sometimes there is even foamed milk on top. With a spoon the 3 layers are mixed into one sweet, rich, tasty, and liquid coffee-dessert.
In the scent “Café Affogato” by Jousset Parfums, the espresso might have been aromatised with caramel or chocolate. Whilst in the beginning the coffee, chocolate and caramel notes are distinguishable, the perfume smells homogenous after a while.
The durability and sillage of the fragrance are good. None of the Jousset’ perfumes has a durability and sillage that is extraordinary, but the perfumes are perceptible for some hours. Next morning nothing of the scent is left on one’s clothes.
According to the Jousset Parfums website the scent notes are as follows: freshly brewed espresso, Madagascar vanilla bean, creamy vanilla ice-cream, roasted coffee beans, dark chocolate, and whipped cream.
The colour of the scent is a warm light brown, like the mixed ingredients of a café bombon or café cortado.
New fragrances of Jousset Parfums are always high on my list to test, as by definition by the company’s founder and nose Jimmy Bodin they are gourmand, even ultra gourmand.
Jimmy Bodin was born in Rennes in France. Information about the perfumer is scarce in the internet. He wrote on his website that whilst he comes from a modest background, his mother always loved beautiful (and expensive) perfumes. He had lived in Switzerland for at least 15 years. There his company was incorporated in 2020. Jousset Parfums is a reference to his mother; her maiden name was Jousset. By now, with the brand being very successful, he and his co-founders (his wife and his best friend) returned to Rennes and opened their first shop there. Today Jousset’s perfumes are available in many countries.
The expansion of the company Jousset Parfums and other companies owned by Jimmy Bodin is fast – there is a website about perfumes under Jimmy Bodin’s own name by now as well. The site is not yet fully up and running, but already with translation not only to English, but Korean, Japanese etc.
Many of the creations of Jousset Parfums and Jimmy Bodin from the early years are not available any more on the Jousset website, as some perfumes seem only to have been made in limited numbers, e.g. the Qahua Bunga series. The name is a bit strange, and I do not know what it means, but the perfumes were also coffee centred gourmands. Some just interesting, some really nice.
The new line “LES DELICES DE Jousset” came in new bottles and a more expensive look. Unfortunately, they are also more expensive than the older perfumes, but available in 2 sizes. Pricing is still fine and fair compared to the 300-€-per-bottle-rule of some perfume brands. Whilst “Café Affogato” is brilliant from my point of view, some others from that line, like “Crème Brulle” and “Belle Helene” would get a more mixed review from me.
All taken together, the brand Jousset Parfums by Jimmy Bodin will certainly continue to create special fragrances. When Jousset Parfums started in 2020, the company was almost perfectly timed for the gourmand hype we see today. Probably the biggest danger is that too many new projects are added to the owner’s list and the successful centricity on one area might be lost.
When I see an interesting new perfume by Jousset Parfums, I tend to try a sample fast, if possible. Other people’s opinions, as stated on the parfumo and FRAGRANTICA platforms, are often not what I smell. “Café Affogato” is a good example – to me it is the best of the “LES DELICES DE Jousset” collection, for most people who gave their comment on one of the named platforms, it is medium. Jousset Parfums is not a brand for 100ml blind buys as far as I am concerned, but a brand for a fast decision when you decide you like a perfume.
It will be most interesting to see which direction Jimmy Bodin takes with his brand and where they stand 10 years from now.