Evoking the traditional smoking of tea leaves in ancient China, Indigo Smoke is an aromatic landscape of narrow serpentine rivers, blue mountains and incense-filled temples condensed into a complex formula of black tea, woody notes and incense. Rich, realistic and long-lasting. With notes of lapsang souchong tea, mandarin orange, apricot, guaiac wood, incense and pine tar.

May 1646, Wuyi Mountains, Fujian.
For centuries, diligent monks in the Wuyi Mountains have grown tea and indigo plants in neatly terraced plantations. In 1646, their monasteries were attacked by Qing soldiers from the north. As the monks were forced to flee, they smoked batches of tea leaves over pinewood fire to preserve their crops. This would become the smoky lapsang souchong tea. Mixing with the fresh mountain air and the incense from nearby shrines, the intoxicating plumes of indigo smoke captured the colors of the Wuyi Mountains and their dramatic river narrows.

MEET THE MAKER

ARQUISTE Parfumeur

Founded by Mexican-born architect, restoration expert and fragrance designer Carlos Huber, ARQUISTE Parfumeur is a scent collection that transports you to evocative moments and historical sites. The name is a combination of words arquitectura (architecture) and artiste (artist), signifying the driving influence and inspiration behind the collection.

Each scent restores a particular olfactive experience by using rare ingredients identified through meticulous research. Interpreted with master perfumers, this background translates stories, landscapes and architecture into top, heart, and base notes. Using high quality, sustainable and responsibly sourced materials, the ARQUISTE scent collection allows you to unlock personal revelations and experience history in a most intimate way.

Drawn to Mexico’s architecture and history, and a passionate traveler since young, Carlos Huber first pursued the study of architecture and historic preservation at prestigious universities in his hometown of Mexico City, in Paris and New York, where he graduated with honors in Historic Preservation at Columbia University. His diverse experience includes meticulous residential and commercial projects as well as art installations concerned with the interpretation of historic sites.

Turning to his longtime love of fragrance, Huber was mentored by master perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux, studying perfume history, evaluation and fragrance development. Bridging the worlds of architectural and perfume history through the lens of restoration led him to collaborate with Flores-Roux and perfumer Yann Vasnier to create ARQUISTE, developing scents that restore authentic historical experiences.

ARQUISTE has garnered awards from organisations like the Fragrance Foundation and Fashion Group International as well as international media, establishing Huber as a fragrance designer dedicated to meticulous storytelling, authenticity and sustainability. By the hand of perfumers like Flores-Roux, Vasnier and Calice Becker, ARQUISTE’s creations are rich, transportive and layered.

View ARQUISTE Collection