7 Perfumes That Smell Like Tonka

Tonka is the warm, sweet note under a great many gourmands and barbershop colognes, and it rarely gets the credit. It smells like vanilla crossed with fresh hay and almond, with a faint tobacco edge. These seven put it in front: start with Le Labo Tonka 25 for tonka in woods, Dior Fève Délicieuse for tonka as dessert, and Lattafa Khamrah if you want it sticky with dates and cinnamon.

What Does Tonka Smell Like?

Tonka beans are the seeds of Dipteryx odorata, a South American tree, and their smell comes mostly from coumarin: sweet, hay-like and almondy, the same molecule that makes drying grass and sweet clover smell sweet. Vanilla is the obvious comparison, but tonka is drier and greener, and the hay is what gives it away.

Coumarin also made modern perfume. It was first synthesised in 1868, and in 1882 Paul Parquet put it in Houbigant’s Fougère Royale, one of the first perfumes built on a synthetic. Its accord of lavender, oakmoss and coumarin became the fougère family, which is why so many classic men’s colognes smell faintly of tonka.

You can wear it, but you can’t eat it in the US. Coumarin can be toxic to the liver in large doses and is related to the blood thinner warfarin, and since 1954 the FDA has treated food containing tonka or added coumarin as adulterated. Perfume is a different matter: IFRA limits coumarin and it has to be labelled as an allergen in the EU, but it’s still everywhere.

Perfume	The tonka	What’s with it
Le Labo Tonka 25	Woody and resinous	Orange flower, cedar, styrax, musk
Guerlain Tonka Impériale	Almond and honey	Tobacco, hay, rosemary, honey
Dior Fève Délicieuse	Tonka as dessert	Bergamot, vanilla
Kilian Angels’ Share	Boozy	Cognac, oak, cinnamon, praline
Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille	Smoky	Tobacco leaf, cocoa, dried fruit
Mancera Tonka Cola	Fizzy	Cherry, cola, cinnamon, vanilla
Lattafa Khamrah	Sticky and spiced	Dates, cinnamon, praline, myrrh

7 Tonka Perfumes

Le Labo Tonka 25

Le Labo’s Tonka 25 combines orange flower absolute, Atlas cedar, styrax resins, tonka absolute and musks, and the house describes humid undergrowth and resins with a touch of vanilla. Cedar and styrax keep the tonka out of the bakery, so this is the pick if you want warmth without sugar. One wearer likes it for exactly that: woody vanilla that never smells like cake.

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Guerlain Tonka Impériale

Thierry Wasser made Tonka Impériale (2010) for Guerlain’s L’Art & La Matière collection, and Guerlain’s notes put tonka with almond, honey, hay, tobacco, rosemary and gingerbread. That’s a portrait of the bean from every side: the almond in coumarin, the hay, the tobacco edge. Guerlain has used coumarin since Jicky in 1889, and this reads like the house showing off what it knows.

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Dior Fève Délicieuse

“Fève” is French for bean, and Dior keeps this one simple: Calabrian bergamot, tonka bean absolute and Madagascar vanilla. With so few notes, the tonka and vanilla carry the whole perfume, and the bergamot is there to lift them. It’s the most straightforward gourmand here.

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Kilian Angels’ Share

Angels’ Share is named for the cognac that evaporates from the barrel while it ages, and Kilian lists cognac, oak, cinnamon, tonka, sandalwood, praline and vanilla. Barrel-aged spirits pick up vanillin and sweet, toasty notes from the oak, which is tonka’s territory, so here the tonka reads as part of the cognac. It’s the boozy option, and our whiskey cologne list has more in this vein.

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Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille

Tobacco Vanille puts tonka between tobacco leaf, ginger, cocoa, dried fruit and vanilla. Pipe tobacco was traditionally flavoured with tonka beans, so the pairing has a long history. This is the darkest, smokiest tonka on the list, a pipe in a wood-panelled study. The tobacco list covers it in more detail.

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Mancera Tonka Cola

Mancera lists lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon and black cherry at the opening; cola, patchouli and orange flowers at the heart; then tonka, benzoin, labdanum and vanilla. Cola is itself built on citrus, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla, so it isn’t a stretch to put it over tonka. It’s the fun one. Cinnamon is louder than the name suggests: one wearer finds it dominates throughout, with the cola clearer close to the skin.

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Lattafa Khamrah

Khamrah is the sweetest tonka here: bergamot, cinnamon and nutmeg, then dates, praline and tuberose, over tonka, benzoin, myrrh, vanilla and woods. It gets compared with Angels’ Share, and the cinnamon and praline overlap, but dates make it something else, denser and stickier, like a Middle Eastern pastry. Our Lattafa guide covers the rest of the house.

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Where Else to Find Tonka

Tom Ford Oud Wood lists tonka under its cardamom and woods, and many vanilla perfumes pair the two. For cherry with tonka’s almond side, try the cherry list.