Agraria’s BITTER ORANGE -- our signature scent-- is exotic and sexy, yet accessible and grounded. This intoxicating, layered blend remains our hallmark after 50 years.  Why does BITTER ORANGE have so many loyal customers? 

A scent can transport us.  It triggers memories, transcends history, and can alternately comfort and excite.  It is both inspirational and aspirational.  A singular scent functions as a muse that drives poetry and acts as a salve in our everyday lives.  We cling to smells, both remembered and imagined, as we do to a perfectly worn pair of jeans, a favorite recipe, or a declaration of love.

When we choose a scent for our person or our home, we do not take this decision lightly.  It defines us.  The perfect scent is an invitation to know us.  It is a window into our sensual souls and must be chosen carefully, as we would a gemstone, a bottle of wine, or a statement piece of art.

With top notes of zest of bitter orange, middle notes of Indonesian clove and bottom notes of Monterey cyprus and olibanum, our Bitter Orange is multi-dimensional.  It permeates a room organically, like the smell of a slow-simmering pot of bitter orange marmalade.  Never too sweet or cloying and always evocative of faraway places -- think Sicily, Corsica, Rome and Seville -- this aroma evokes a warm spring day in the Villa Borghese gardens – romantic, provocative, and mysterious. 

Bitter oranges, also known as Portogalli, Arance Amare or Melangoli, have long found a home in Italy where they were planted in monastery gardens such as Rome’s Santa Sabina and San Filippo Neri and esteemed for their medicinal qualities and curative powers.  Equally, the bitter orange tree is highly prized in the perfumery world because every part of the fruit can be used as raw materials.  The flowers provide orange blossom absolute and neroli oil, the leaves and tender buds provide the essential oil, petitgrain, while the fruit peel contains wonderfully rich and complex bitter orange oil.

Winter is the season for bitter oranges.  They are as at home in the kitchen as they are in the perfumery and apothecary.  Their aromatic flavoring can be used to make marmalade, or a paste used to flavor anything from fruit salads to savory stews and fragrant desserts.  Bitter orange juice can be substituted for any recipe calling for lemon juice as it is intensely tart and complex.  It lends a bright, floral fragrance that is reminiscent of green mandarins, fresh leaves and white petals.

The choice of Agraria’s Bitter Orange is confident.   It tells us that there is more to you than meets the eye.  Adventuresome, spicy, curious and free, you stand out as an independent in a world full of wannabes.  As with all great perfumes, Bitter Orange makes a statement.  You are pleasantly aware of its majestic presence, but always as a complement to the person or the place, never as a tawdry impostor. 

Bitter Orange is presented in multiple formats for every occasion: Bitter Orange Potpourri, Perfume Candle, Air Essence Diffuser and more.