Malt
Akro (2018)

I was repelled on first smelling Malt, which seemed like a salty and stale-smelling take on a gourmand. (Not the qualities I would have said were missing from the repertory.) But I admit that on seeing the notes, including whiskey and seaweed, the seaweed immediately came into focus for me, and the "stale" quality morphed to into a walk on the beach by heaps of gleaming, odd-smelling, fairy world, other worldly-body, intricate sea plant matter. And now I keep sniffing my wrist, thinking "yeast"! "Seaweed warming in the sun"! Another association: I used to make bagels, putting a big spoonful of barley malt syrup into a kettle of water to boil the shaped dough before baking, and yes, there is just a whiff of that good smell here. I suspect I will use the entire sample before deciding yay or nay, and I imagine my spouse may vote nay, but as this dries down into a soft, close to the skin sweetness, I'm already missing that dissonant organic burst of the opening.

Oh, dear, this one is unfortunate. Its opening immediately reminded me of the sickly sweet odor of stale beer, bringing me back to many debaucherous nights in my early 20s, or rather, the mornings that followed. The smell of hang overs and regret. Other libations follow in the development of Malt, but it's all rather vague and frankly, nauseating. The ensuing brininess sends it over edge.

I imagine this would be just about the last thing a veteran bartender would want to wear.

Akro Malt (from the original 2018 Akro collection, created by Olivier Cresp) is a boozy, spicy blend featuring the key accords of whiskey, rum, leather, seaweed, and patchouli, according to Luckyscent, Akro’s main retailer in the US. Certainly the boozy notes are front and center, so in that respect the name of the fragrance is appropriate, but there are definitely some green and herbal aspects, and even a twinge of an animalic side within the leather. So like Haze, there’s something very familiar and warm but also herbal and spicy.

Still, the mix on the whole is very pleasant, and this strikes me as a nice bridge between sweeter boozy fragrances and spicy leather fragrances, somewhere in between, an itch that’s not quite been scratched by another fragrance in recent memory. In having the best of both worlds, it feels like a versatile option, particularly in cooler weather. As with most of the line, it performs well and has some density but is not overbearing, so some controlled sprays would make this a year-round fragrance, just perhaps not in the heat of a summer day.

Like the rest of the line, Malt is priced at $160 for 100ml, very reasonable for niche pricing in today’s market, and is sold via the Luckyscent boutique in the US, as well as Akro’s US site.

7 out of 10

Musky, earthy, aromatic baking-bread opening. As it settles, It becomes more pleasant, less polarizing. My only reference for malt in a scent is beer and Pure Malt from Mugler. It does have some of that kind of scent, but like most Akro scents that I’ve tried, they work it in as an accord of the total scent, not a photo-realistic representation of a note. Interesting stuff.

Performance is pretty good during the first few hours and then it fades to a detectable skin scent that could work well in close situations. Lasts about 6 hours.

I am not a whisky connoisseur, don't like the stuff much, but that smoky-peaty aroma, which aficionados revere and which to me recalls the antiseptic TCP, is faithfully represented here. You can occasionally pick up the same type of smell drifting through the London underground.

Distilleries such as Islay make much of their proximity to the sea, and I note the declared ingredients of this fragrance include seaweed. Top marks for authenticity and originality.