Almond blossoms for eternity
Verónica Benito wears a cap, gloves and a lab coat at work. She stands in the laboratory and handles small, slender glass bottles on a white table in front of her. Next to them, on a glass plate, are bright, wet flowers.
Using her fingers, she now places one flower on each open neck of the bottle, carefully spreads out the five petals and then gently presses the flower into the bottle with a long blunt plastic stick.
As soon as they are immersed in the transparent liquid, they unfold, appear infinitely delicate and enchant. "Every perfume is a hand-picked greeting of love," says Verónica's father Miguel Ángel Benito.
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Flor d'Ametler, almond blossom, is the name of the only perfume produced in Mallorca. Its trademark is the real blossom that floats in every bottle. Bernat Vallori came up with the idea more than 70 years ago. The founder of the perfume factory was a chemist and wanted to offer tourists a special souvenir in keeping with the island's image at the time.
Mallorca was considered a place of longing for romantics. Initially, it was not beaches and the sea that adorned the advertising posters, but blossoming almond branches. This perception was also shaped by the princely couple Gracia and Rainier of Monaco, who spent their honeymoon on the island in 1956. Vallori was certainly a romantic himself, because, as Miguel Ángel explains, "the idea came to him while walking under almond trees in bloom, they must have intoxicated him."
Vallori's grandmothers were her role models. They created their own rose and orange blossom water. Every estate used to have a small distillery. The Benito family bought the brand from the founder 40 years ago. Today, they produce three perfumes near Palma. They combine the aroma of almond blossom with different fragrances: The classic smells sweet and light, Fresc (Fresh) has a citrus note and Desig (Desire) smells woody and aromatic.
There is also another product line that is marketed under the brand name Tot Herba: Natural cosmetics and essential oils, with almond oil and herbs from the island. It is important to Miguel Ángel Benito that as many ingredients as possible are grown on Mallorca. In keeping with his philosophy of life, he runs the manufactory with energy from his own solar panels, employs people with disabilities and only sells his products on the island. The environmentalist is just as uninterested in long transportation routes as he is in large-scale production. "When it comes to quantity, the island can't compete with others," he says, "we can only score points with quality." Benito's love of his homeland is palpable when you visit the small factory. "Mallorca has more than 100 varieties of almonds," he says, "we have to preserve this wealth." On the island, almond trees are considered a relic from
the good old days when agriculture was still profitable. Not all the blossoms are intensely fragrant; most of the trees were planted for almond production, some also as a source of wood. "The more hours of sunshine the blossoms get, the sweeter they smell," explains Benito, "but the trees also need a bit of weather stress."
Today Benito is worried about his almond trees
The smell of the island
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