Pistachio Muse

Pastries, nuts and warm milk drifting through a sunlit cafe.

Lingering somewhere warm with no particular reason to leave. The sweetness is kept light, and playfulness is held against refinement.

Almond powder and hazelnut make a delicate nuttiness, brightened by the soft citrus freshness of Tuscan orange peel. The roasted nut it is named for comes in with vanilla seeds and milk caramel, warm, airy and softly enveloping. Patchouli and amber give a smooth woody depth underneath.

ZHUFU takes its name and the form of its bottle from bamboo, and the character for blessing is engraved into the foot of every one. Each release carries a wish: for harmony, long life and gentle prosperity. The house works in natural essential oils and writes a story for every release, so a bottle here starts from persimmons ripening in a basket, tea and tobacco in a cabin on a midsummer night, or the Jinmao Tower.

Chinese cultural symbolism meets contemporary design across a range that runs from a gourmand built on named tea cultivars through to conifer woods and pale florals. The green tea there is Yabukita, Samidori and Okumidori rather than one flat green, the fruit arrives from Haikou, Hainan and Guangdong, and every release names the person who made it.