Oil · Citrus family
Bergamot
Citrus bergamia
Cold-pressed from the peel. The bright lift at the top of a formula.
Bergamot is the most elegant of the citruses, the note that gives Earl Grey its perfume. Cold-pressed from the peel, it is bright and a little bitter, and it lifts almost any blend.
The source
The Calabrian coast
Bergamot grows almost nowhere else. The narrow Ionian coast of Reggio Calabria, in the far south of Italy, has the light and the sea air the tree needs, and has grown the fruit since the eighteenth century. It is the citrus that gives Earl Grey its scent. Cold-pressed from the peel, never reconstructed, so the top note stays bright.
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