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Cardamom Flower

Q: Is Cardamom Flower natural or synthetic?

. Extraction: No commercial extraction exists. Entirely a fantasy concept..

FLOWERS / floral · spicy · sweet

Cardamom Flower

Category	FLOWERS
Subcategory	floral · spicy · sweet
Origin
Volatility	Heart Note
Botanical	Elettaria cardamomum
Appearance	N/A — fragrance accord
Odor Strength	Medium
Producing Countries	Guatemala, India
Pyramid	Heart

Sweet-spicy, faintly green, lighter than the pod. Cardamom flowers are restrained and understated — the spice before it concentrates into seeds.

Scent
The Full Story
Fun Fact
Extraction & Chemistry
In Perfumery

Scent

Sweet-spicy, lighter and greener than the pod. Like cardamom essential oil diluted with fresh green-leaf notes. The eucalyptol (cineole) freshness is there but veiled by a gentle floral sweetness. Pre-concentration spice — diffuse rather than pointed.

Evolution over time

Immediately

Sweet-spicy freshness, green, cineole lift

After a few hours

Gentle cardamom warmth, less sharp, more floral

After a few days

Faint warm-spicy trace, clean green fade

The Full Story

Cardamom flower (Elettaria cardamomum) — the orchid-like bloom of the cardamom plant — has a scent that suggests the spice but at much lower intensity. Sweet, faintly spicy, with a green, herbaceous freshness absent from the dried seed pod.

No commercial extraction of the flowers exists. The fantasy accord captures the pre-spice character: what cardamom smells like before concentration. Lighter, greener, more floral. Construction uses attenuated cardamom oil (1,8-cineole, alpha-terpinyl acetate), light florals, and green elements.

The flowers grow near ground level on the cardamom plant's separate flowering stem — they never form part of the leafy canopy. Pale with purple-striped lips, they are pollinated by large carpenter bees.

Cardamom is the world's third most expensive spice (after saffron and vanilla). Major production: Guatemala (world's largest producer since the 1980s), India (Kerala, Karnataka).

This note in Première Peau. Nuit Elastique · Rose Monotone. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.

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Did You Know?

Did you know?

Cardamom pods must be harvested by hand — each pod ripens at a different time on the same plant, making mechanical harvesting impossible. A skilled picker collects approximately 5 kg of green pods per day, which yield about 1 kg of dried cardamom.

Extraction & Chemistry

Extraction method: No commercial extraction exists. Entirely a fantasy concept.

Molecular Formula	complex mixture (1,8-cineole C₁₀H₁₈O, terpinyl acetate)
CAS Number	N/A — reconstructed floral-spicy accord (8000-66-6 is the pod essential oil)
Botanical Name	Elettaria cardamomum
IFRA Status	No known restrictions
Synonyms	Cardamom Blossom
Physical Properties
Odor Strength	Medium
Appearance	N/A — fragrance accord
Specific Gravity	0.900 to 0.940 @ 25 °C (est)

In Perfumery

Fantasy floral providing attenuated cardamom character with green-floral context. No extraction exists. Built from diluted cardamom oil with floral and green elements. Functions in spicy-floral and green-aromatic compositions.