Ethyl maltol

Description and usage notes:

It has a sweet sugary, caramelised, jammy, strawberry-like odour reminiscent of candyfloss. It is a very powerful ingredient normally used at high dilution for sweetening blends or in conjunction with vanilla notes to create a rich, edible scent.

Small amounts used alongside the volatile fruity esters contribute to realistic fruit accords, particularly pineapple, strawberry and peach / nectarine / apricot types.

Jean Claude Elena, in his book Diary of a Nose, suggests that in combination with Allyl Hexanoate this material can produce an effective illusion of the smell of fresh pineapple.  He says “This exotic fruit needs few elements to express itself.  A simple molecule called allyl hexanoate smells of pineapple, but also evokes some kinds of apple; there are sometimes tenuous differences between two smells.  To get the pineapple smell just right it is important to add ethyl maltol.” 

He also suggests that in combination with gamma-Octalactone  and Stemone this material can produce an effective illusion of the smell of ripe figs.  He says “Stemone gives an impression of mint leaves or fig leaves, it all depends on what I want to make it say.  For the smell of ripe figs I recommend adding ethyl maltol, but for dried figs the answer lies in concrete of iris.”

We suggest you might want to save some money and substitute Orris Givco for the expensive concrete of iris however.  Also keep in mind that while this combination does give a terrific illusion of figs, gamma-Octolactone,  ethyl maltol and even orris are much longer lasting than Stemone, so the illusion tends to break into sweet coconut over time.

In the same work Elena suggests that, in combination with fructone and, optionally, methyl anthranilate, this material can create the illusion of the smell of strawberries.  He says “As an apprentice perfumer, I learned that the smell of strawberries could be made with C-16 aldehyde, which is known as ‘strawberry’ – both terms are misnomers because chemically it is in fact acetone[*], and it smells mainly of apples.  I would suggest another combination:

• fructone
• ethyl maltol

And for wild strawberries:

• fructone
• ethyl maltol
• methyl anthranilate” 

* – presumably this is a misprint, as clearly strawberry glycidate isn’t acetone any more than it is an aldehyde.

Available as the pure powder by default or at 10% dilution in DPG upon request: just indicate that’s what you want in the Notes Box at checkout.

If you do this be aware that what you get will be the same weight of diluted material, so if you’re comfortable doing your own dilution it’s better value to buy the powder.