GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES / fresh · green · citrus
Tangerine Leaves
Category
GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES
Subcategory
fresh · green · citrus
Origin
Volatility
Heart Note
Botanical
Citrus reticulata
Appearance
Pale yellow to amber liquid
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
Brazil, China, Spain
Pyramid
Heart
Bitter-green and slightly metallic, like snapping a citrus twig. Tangerine leaf sits between petitgrain and the zest — greener than the peel, less floral than neroli.
Sharp bitter-green opening, like snapping a citrus twig and holding it to your nose. Metallic freshness with a linalool-driven floral whisper underneath. Less powdery than petitgrain bigarade, less sweet than mandarin peel, more vegetal than bergamot leaf. Fades to a dry, papery green — pressed leaves rather than fresh ones.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Sharp, bitter-green snap — crushed citrus stems, metallic freshness, hint of linalool
After a few hours
After a few hours
Softer green, slightly floral and waxy, the metallic edge fades to a leafy warmth
After a few days
After a few days
Faint, dry-green residue — papery, like pressed leaves in a book
Terroir & Transformation
Indicative 2025 wholesale prices.
The Full Story
Tangerine leaf smells like what happens when you snap a twig off a citrus tree: a sharp, bitter-green burst with a metallic freshness that the fruit itself never has. It is the stem, not the peel — greener than mandarin zest, less floral than neroli, more specifically citrus than generic petitgrain bigarade.
The oil is obtained by steam distillation of leaves and twigs from Citrus reticulata, primarily in Sicily and Calabria. It belongs to the petitgrain family — oils distilled from citrus foliage rather than fruit or flowers. Its chemical profile centers on linalool and linalyl acetate, with traces of methyl anthranilate contributing a faintly grape-like undertone that distinguishes it from other petitgrains.
In formulation, tangerine leaf is a top-to-heart bridge in hesperidic structures. It provides the green bitterness that keeps citrus accords from reading as flat or candied. At higher doses it can push a composition toward a Mediterranean garden atmosphere — hot leaves, crushed stems, terracotta. At lower doses it simply freshens and lifts, adding a naturalistic edge to synthetic citrus bases.
The word 'petitgrain' — used for oils distilled from citrus leaves — originally referred to the small, unripe fruits (petit grains) that fell from bitter orange trees during pruning and were distilled along with the leaves.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Steam distillation of leaves and twigs (petitgrain-type extraction) from Citrus reticulata. The oil is produced primarily in Italy (Sicily, Calabria) and southern Spain. Yield is approximately 0.2-0.5% from fresh leaf material. The resulting oil is pale yellow to greenish, with a characteristic bitter-green, slightly floral aroma.
Tangerine leaf operates as a top-to-heart modifier in citrus and aromatic compositions. It provides the green, bitter-stemmy quality that separates a naturalistic citrus accord from a one-dimensional peel note. Functionally similar to petitgrain mandarine (steam-distilled from Citrus reticulata leaves and twigs), it bridges bright citrus openings to floral or woody hearts without the sweetness of the fruit itself. In eaux de cologne and hesperidic structures, it replaces or supplements petitgrain bigarade when a less bitter, more tangerine-specific green is needed. It works well alongside linalool, linalyl acetate, and methyl anthranilate — the molecule responsible for the grape-like sweetness in mandarin peel oil.
