This post was originally shared in our email newsletter on November 6th, 2024.
Three and a half years after the launch of our last scent, Canyons, I am so excited for the imminent arrival of the newest member of the Keap line, Timur Moon!
There's a new moon in town
Keap subscribers with a shipment scheduled in November will receive a preview tealight of this scent. Full-size Timur Moon candles start shipping to subscribers December 1 (make sure to select the Seasonal Scent option).
For folks who aren’t subscribed, we’re also including Timur Moon in our Scent-to-Home sample set .
Why Timur Moon?
The name Timur Moon stems from the centering of a rare fragrance ingredient called Timur Pepper. Timur Pepper (technically a berry) is a relative of the Sichuan pepper. Long used as a culinary and medicinal plant in its native Nepal, its incredibly complex olfactive profile (lemony, floral, basilic, fruity in a guava sort of way, woodsy and peppery) was inaccessible to perfumers until a few years ago. Traditional essential oil distillation applies significant heat to the raw material, and you lose a lot of the lighter, delicate notes in the process. In the case of Timur Pepper, the extent of this loss makes the result unrecognizable and unusable.
Our new partner Mane—a multigenerational family-owned fragrance house—recently developed a remarkable technology that can extract the essence of Timur Pepper with very little heat by applying very high pressure. The outcome is an oil that retains the wondrous contrasts of the original Timur Pepper.
While we were reading about this unique plant, we were struck to learn about its traditional culinary use by peoples across Nepal, as part of the Maghi celebration, which marks the full moon during the eleventh month of the Hindu calendar. It is an occasion to perform various ceremonies under the light of the moon as winter draws to a close and spring nears. The moon is a fascinating cultural object of contrasts. Its light can only be seen through darkness, and its associations range from disquieting to hopeful. Timur Pepper’s enigmatic grace mirrors these contrasts of light and dark.
What Keapers Had To Say About The Scent
A few dozens members of our Keaper Lab smelled a sample of Timur Moon in advance with no context (not even the name of the scent!), and shared their thoughts. While scent is subjective and experienced differently by everyone, I was surprised by how the range of notes in the fragrance was captured by the group and how simultaneously different folks latched on to different aspects. Here are a few illustrative quotes:
“Musky woody, but primarily bergamot. Reminds me of my morning earl grey and also of hipster masculine fragrances that are popular in the past 5-10 years.” [note from Harry: there is no bergamot in the candle, however this is a spot-on observation in that Timur pepper’s floral and citrusy aspects do have a lot in common with bergamot!]
“Tree sap! It reminds me of being a kid and getting sap on my fingers, then bringing them to my nose to smell the deep woodsy forest scent. This is such an interesting and unique candle scent - I've never smelled anything like it.”
“Coriander? Maybe some peppermint? Feels like a green scent but not summer green. Kind of cozy kind of fancy? I really enjoyed the smell! It was a bit hard to identify but enjoyed the spice smell that didn’t feel heavy.”
“It smells of a nostalgia, of loved one's homes, it's floral but not too sweet. It's uplifting, but comforting. I really like it! I've been thinking about what direction you would go in for a new scent that wasn't too repetitive or an overlap of your other candles, and I think you nailed it. Immediately this felt new, but also exactly what it was meant to be!”
I can’t wait to hear what you think about Timur Moon. In the meantime, have you ever smelled or tasted Timur Pepper before? I’d love to hear the story. :)
Wishing you a restful week ahead,
—Harry from Keap, Steward-Owner
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