✎ Heraud / Andy Tauer: A Niche Perfume Review

Pitti Firenze often feels like a slow farewell to the perfume year; perfumers typically don’t attend to showcase new releases. The focus is on deals, new connections, and getting products onto shelves before Christmas. This year’s event was no different—slow and languid—until a superstar emerged: Andy Tauer, who had not been seen in person for five years, reappeared from the Swiss woods holding a new niche perfume adorned with a colorful label. In fact, he seemed to have emerged from the depths of a tropical cocoa plantation. Heraud / TAUER review.

Translated by AI. 

A New Line of Rare Extraits from Tauer Perfumes

What has Andy been doing over the past few years? He has traveled extensively, which he loves, and searched for new, unusual ingredients. Heraud is the first in a series of rare perfumes that will feature these discovered components. Since these ingredients are rare and depend on nature’s whims—something all of us in Moravia have come to understand—they will only be available when the harvest permits.

“This is true; it’s not marketing—at least not with Andy. I love his linden flower TAU, which was produced for only two years. After that, there was no harvest, and then IFRA restrictions came into play… and Andy will never produce it again. It’s tempting to buy it immediately for safety, isn’t it?”

The use of uniquely fragrant ingredients isn’t a new concept. However, now more than ever, the niche market needs to focus on what is ART—what truly elevates perfumery and provides us with unique, unforgettable olfactory experiences and emotions that few can grasp. Or is it just easily replicable commercial production like “our fragrance contains a rare nectar from a cactus that blooms only at night, crafted in an IFF lab”? How can you form any relationship or emotion with that?

“You must envision the perfumer, machete in hand, cutting through an African jungle, collecting rare beans known only to the elders and now Andy. He trades them for beads and mirrors and brings them back to Brno.”

Many small brands today technically fall under the niche category simply because they are privately owned small companies, possibly with better ingredients, but their fragrances are interchangeable and serve merely business purposes.

Discussion with Andy Tauer: Counterfeits and the Gray Market

Here comes the inevitable line: so let the commercial niche not be surprised when someone counterfeits them and creates dupes! I asked Andy if he fears counterfeiters with Tauer perfumes: it made him laugh. Then he looked at me as if to say, “You don’t get what I’ve been telling you this whole time?” He said something like, “Write, bard, write, accumulate, and when you have that rare material from those rare beans that only come around every three years, try to counterfeit Tauer…”

Andy is one of the benchmarks of niche; this is how it should work. FOLLOW HIM!

Review of HERAUD / TAUER

The centerpiece of this fragrance is a twice-distilled extract from cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast. He chose them for their intensely sweet aroma and oily, animalistic notes. At the exhibition, Andy had bowls of beans and encouraged people to smell, crush, and seek those notes. I don’t have a trained nose to grasp the full spectrum, but Andy was so persuasive… I detected hints of diesel and mineral oil (though Andy looked skeptical).

The first inhale reveals Tauer’s signature: bergamot with that characteristic sharpness reminiscent of screeching glass, which you either love or hate about Tauer. But it’s just a hint, quickly giving way to cocoa powder—mild, dry cocoa, sprinkled into a cup before you pour in warm milk. It’s not gourmand; it’s still a raw kitchen ingredient, like flour.

The missing sweetness is filled by date syrup. Dates have a subtle fruity scent, leaning more toward honey and wood. Andy emphasizes the woodiness of the date pit. You know that taste when you suck on it all evening while watching TV, right?

Cocoa powder, woody date pit, and translucent vanilla. That’s it. There’s likely some musk in there, as the scent is beautifully warm and rounded, but it acts only as a light dressing for the salad: holding the ingredients together without being prominent.

When focusing on the cocoa itself, I find slightly dirty notes, bitter, coffee-like. Perhaps that’s the animalistic quality Andy mentioned.

How Does HERAUD / Andy Tauer Smell?

The overall impression is very subtle, non-gourmand. I don’t want to downplay it by saying it smells like cocoa-scented powder, but… it does smell like cocoa-scented powder. That powderiness is beautiful and intriguing; I really enjoy it… but it treads right on the edge of personal space. If I had this fragrance (and I would like it), I would spray it on in the evening just for myself and quietly enjoy it. I think that against the backdrop of synthetic scents out there, I wouldn’t stand a chance to maintain a sufficiently clean nose to savor it. HERAUD is definitely not a compliment collector.

The gentle projection and simplicity of HERAUD come from that central cocoa extract. Cocoa itself doesn’t have a strong scent. Although Heraud is an “overdosed” extract, it can’t handle more prominent components around it without overshadowing the delicate nuances of the rare material from the Ivory Coast. Andy has managed to balance the composition.

Thus, it remains a bit understated, gentle, and lacks vibrancy (the label is very misleading) and is very little “au gourmand” as today’s consumers perceive it (which is good!!!). This will not be “warm buns on the shelf,” as Evka from 1907 Perfumes describes some commercial niche creations…

My review is, unfortunately, just from a sprayed hand, scarf, and notes in my notebook. I didn’t have a chance to test it longer and cannot comment on its longevity or projection. But according to my friends who have been lucky enough to try it, it lasts a long time. Try it yourself at Vavavoom.

Who Is Heraud / TAUER Perfumes For?

If you’re used to contemporary lactonic, sweet niche fragrances that cause tooth decay, this will be weak for you, and you won’t wear it.

If you need to draw attention and impress with loud branded elegance, buy Tauer’s Al’Oudh.

If you enjoy extreme Tauer tones and like explaining to colleagues “what on earth are you wearing today,” this isn’t for you either.

But if you love Andy, appreciate art, are a confident adult, and buy perfumes for your own joy, enjoying the evolution of scent and seeking out its subtle nuances over time, this is for you. Place it in your art room, next to Japanese miniatures, and make sure to insure it well. I know this is a lot of conditions, but there are people among us: I know a lady named Martina in Brno, and she will certainly be one of the first to take it home from Brno’s Vavavoom.

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Disclaimer: This text summarizes the author’s personal impressions and subjective opinions. None of the authors on the blog take responsibility if your impression differs or if you decide to purchase a product based on this article.

Key words: niche, niche perfume review, Andy Tauer, Tauer perfumes, Andy Tauer Heraud review

Translated by GPT CHAT