Bergamot

Bergamot (Citrus bergamia) is a small green-yellow citrus, smaller than a lemon, with a thin pithy rind that yields the most intensely aromatic peel oil in commercial perfumery. Over 90 percent of the world's bergamot is grown along a 100km strip of Calabrian coastline, where the soil and sea air give the fruit its distinctive complexity. The oil is cold-pressed from the peel · never the flesh · and characterises virtually every Eau de Cologne ever made. In modern perfumery, bergamot opens roughly six in ten masculine fragrances and a similar share of unisex compositions, valued for its ability to lift heavier base notes without sweetness. Its aroma sits between lemon's sharpness and orange's warmth, with a faintly bitter, leafy quality that prevents it from reading as candy-citrus.