Dark
Akro (2018)

From the jump, its evokes a scene where Aunt Bessie asks, "would you like a tall, cold glass of Yoo-Hoo to go with your Tootsee Rolls?"

"Hell to the no no," I sing. I have unwrapped many a luxury dark chocolate bar and this is not what I come to expect. The rest of it is irrelevant if I can't get past that dreadful opening.

What a surprise! I was expecting a photorealistic dark-chocolate (much like Awake is almost pure coffee) but it’s so much more

It does open mostly dark chocolate and cocoa powder, but as it dries down a woodiness emerges. It’s rich, smokey and oddly comforting. It was just the touch of complexity it needed to really grab me. I blew through my decants wearing this every day before caving for the full bottle.

Worth testing for any fan of complex gourmands, dark chocolate, wood or even Oud. Very unisex

Akro Dark is one of the original six fragrances released from the Olivier Cresp-led brand in 2018, a well-named gourmand blend featuring dark chocolate with pinches of hazelnut, cinnamon, and vanilla. It manages to not be too sweet while having an air of mystery to it, something non-gourmand in what is clearly a mostly-gourmand element, so I like the name “Dark” for it since it is not hugely descriptive. Admittedly, I do not like it quite as much as the coffee-centric Awake but it’s still very well done. It’s quite rich and the performance seems to be pretty strong, perhaps slightly better than Awake.

Dark, like the rest of the brand, has EDP concentration and is sold in the US via Luckyscent (where I got my dabber sample) at $160 for 100ml, though it is also sold directly through its website, where there is a $80 for 30ml option as well.

7 out of 10

A nice, wearable chocolate-vanilla scent that isn't too heavy. Sometimes, I find that chocolate or vanilla-centric scents can be very heavy and cloying. I didn't find that with Dark. It's a scent that hints at a dusty, cocoa powder with a vanilla cookie without going overboard on anything.

Projection was average on my skin but longevity was very good, lasting most of the day.

Cocoa and dark chocolate - the two component in the opening, set the scene for the theme this product is conceptualised around: sweet and bitter. The bitterness was quite strong and nigh-skanky, but then settles into a good balance with the sweeter component. Very nice.

The drydown adds some cinnamon, which does not last long on me. This is followed by some hazelnuts.

Towards the ends a dry vanilla appears. Unlike in many other olfactory creations, this vanilla is not a sweet and creamy filler applied in the last hours of the development, but sparingly added as a condiment; this vanilla is a good team-player.

I get moderate sillage, very good projection, and eight hours of longevity on my skin.

Whilst the ingredients of this autumnal creation are not particularly original and occasionally a bit generic, this composition is an interesting take on the gourmand chocolate theme, being much less sweet than usual and trimmed down; it is a bitter chocolate more than a creamy nougat. The performance is good. 3.25/5

For a chocolate scent, this is almost aloof. The name is appropriate - this cacao is dark. It opens up rough and bitter and animalic and earthy before transitioning into a creamier (but still quite dark) chocolate liqueur mid and drydown. This is nice option for those who find many standard-issue gourmand scents too sugary and want a bit of the bitter fruitiness of a high-intensity dark chocolate.

For what is truly a gourmand, this feels almost formal to me, perhaps due to its intensity. It's certainly not inviting in the way most gourmands tend to be.