Tabarca 1760: The scent of a Spanish island's history by Obama's personal perfume-maker
Friday, September 25, 2015 @ 8:37 PM
PRESIDENT Barack Obama's 'personal' perfume creator has launched a new scent inspired by the island of Tabarca off the coast of southern Alicante.
The fragrance, named Tabarca 1760 – after the year when the island was officially founded – contains up to 42 natural essences to give it 'the scent of the Mediterranean'.
Pedro de Leana, Count of San Jorge and owner of the Leana Spa in Fortuna (Murcia Region) says the scent reflects Tabarca's history and present, making it completely unique.
Oranges and green mandarines from the Liguria region in north-western Italy where Tabarca's original inhabitants came from, geraniums, essences of the sea and other plants have been combined to give the perfume a flavour of Italy, Tunisia and Mediterranean Spain, combined with the lush greenery of the tiny island.
The first 100 bottles sold come with a certificate and issue number as a one-off souvenir.
An offshoot of Tabarca 1760 is Llop Marí ('marine wolf'), after the cave of the same name on the island, and carries a fresh, seaside aroma with extracts of seaweed and the 'scent of the ozone', rather like grass and trees after a summer rain shower.
Both are retailed at Leana Spa, on Tabarca itself and in select boutiques in Torrevieja (Alicante province) just across the water, although the creator plans to roll it out to perfume shops all along the western Mediterranean.
Tabarca Island: Tuscany meets Tunisia
Visted by over 3,000 tourists a day in summer, Tabarca Island – which is just over a mile long and a third of a mile wide – only has 61 inhabitants of whom fewer than 10 live there year-round.
It was first habited by 69 families from Genoa who had lived on the Tunisian island of Tabarka were enslaved and tortured.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com