Five O’Clock Au Gingembre Serge Lutens

Hey Posse, Five O’Clock Au Gingembre is my all time most worn Serge Lutens fragrance. I’m into my second bottle, and that’s saying quite a lot considering the amount of fragrance in this apartment. I wore it on Xmas Day this year and it was a perfect fit for our summer but it works equally well in the snow. While not being the most out there or boundary pushing fragrance in the Lutens oeuvre, it was a revelation when I first smelled it some time around 2010/11. Nothing I’d smelled before had prepared me for it, though I’d been a hardcore Gucci Envy for men wearer and that’s chock full of ginger.

Mildly amusing story as an aside: Recently I entered a Western Sydney LGBTQI Writing Competition. This week I was told I’d won and could someone deliver my Cash Prize! Very excited. Not just that I’d won but because the extra money is wanted due to my work being very slow, C19 closures etc. So I went to meet the bearer of such grand largesse today for a coffee and she handed me the envelope. Expecting the hundreds of $$$$ First Prize I was a little surprised that I’d not WON but come third. Still $50 is better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick. While I’m not complaining, it’s now a bit embarrassing because I’d told everyone I was a WINNER! Now I’m going to have to explain to all and sundry that I’d not won. I should learn to keep my stupid boastful mouth shut.

Five O’Clock Au Gingembre Serge Lutens

Five O'Clock Au Gingembre

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tea Bergamot
Heart: Cinnamon Woodsy Notes Candied Ginger
Base: Pepper Honey Amber Cacao Patchouli

The opening rush is all ginger and citrus for me. A delightfully zingy sweetness that lasts a few minutes before the dryness of tea arrives. Suddenly a fun and flirty fragrance becomes mature and elegant. A calm space in a hectic world. No white flowers mentioned in the notes yet I always get wafts of them running through the fragrance.

I’m not sure if High Tea makes me think of Five O’Clock Au Gingembre or if I wear it a lot to High Tea. Either way, the scent connection is made and whenever I spritz my memories fly back to spectacular High Teas had in such far flung places as The Ritz Paris (Salon Proust pictured below), Shangri La Singapore, Fortnum & Mason in London, Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, Hydro Majestic and Sir Stamford here in Sydney and more, more, more. Many of those adventures wearing Five O’Clock Au Gingembre. You might guess I do love to High Tea.

Five O'Clock Au Gingembre Serge Lutens

The heart of Five O’Clock Au Gingembre is a spicy, sugared and honeyed wood. This main event lasts well into dry down and gets more resinous and darker as it fades to nothing.

100% unisex with moderate to low projection after an hour.

Are you a Five O’Clock Au Gingembre fan?
Portia xx

  • Lynda Allen says:

    Have it, love it, and now have high tea envy ?

  • Pam says:

    You DID win! Of course, a zillion dollars would have been better, but still . . .And unfortunately I have never smelled Five O’Clock au Gingembre.

  • Anna Calarco says:

    Oohh you did win Portia …you win my heart with your writing as well ?
    Yes I remember our high tea in Paris…was it Paris or heaven ?

    • Portia says:

      HA! Whenever we are in Paris it’s definitely heaven Anna Maria.
      Tonight we had crepes in Chinatown that were only 1/4 as good as Gaush’s in Châtelet–Les Halles. Now I’m really missing Paris.
      Portia xx

  • Maggiecat says:

    I may be a fan now! Somehow, I’ve never tried this but it just went on my list. It sounds yummy!

  • Tom says:

    Thanks for reminding me about this. I actually don’t know if I have a bottle (I know, first world problems) or whether I used it up. I do remember that I liked it and wrote about it positively. Reading this I’ll have to go into the depths of the vault and see if I can dig it up.

  • Jennifer S says:

    Ahh. But you did win Portia and congratulations on your effort! Five O’clock is one of my favorites. So nice during the colder weather!
    Not really a tea drinker but I’d do it if I could sit in that elegant room! Lol.

    • Portia says:

      Thanks JenniferS,
      The Ritz Paris is well worth having a High Tea in. Once we were all so scruffy after a day out the bellboy tried to tell us we couldn’t come in. I had to use my Mum;’s stare down techniques and talk quite softly. It felt like a real life win.
      Portia xx

  • Tara C says:

    Five O’Clock is yummy, I do enjoy it. Very easy to wear as a Lutens, which you can’t say for a lot of them.

    Congrats on your prize! They really should have told you up front that you’d won third, that’s on them.

  • rosarita says:

    Yes, I’m a fan! One of my besties on MUA sent me a sizey decant ages ago and I’m still using it while I peruse bottles online. Congrats on your win, Portia, third place is nothing to sneeze at. And a big yes to high tea 🙂

  • March says:

    LOVE a fancy tea! Particularly given where I live now, the next big city I escape to for a trip, I’m finding a hotel for tea! I also love Gingembre, although the ginger-y part never sticks around as long as I want it to. I recall committing some heresy, I think I was spraying Origins’ Ginger on top for a refresh lol.

  • VerbenaLuvvr says:

    I am not a fan of this one, but then I am so very attached to Arabie in the spice department. And as for your win, YAY! It’s a bronze medal and still recognizes a podium-worthy performance. Your writing is so very good and entertaining!

  • Musette says:

    alas, no. But more neutral than NO!
    LoveloveLOVE a High Tea. Peninsula does a very nice one (for US, at any rate).

    And congratulations! You DID win. Just not The Big Win. But, as I’m suspecting more than 3 people entered their writings, coming in 3rd is a big accomplishment!

    xoxoxo

    • Portia says:

      One day we’ll high tea Musette.

      Of course you are right but being mismanaged in the expectations department is not good for me. Suddenly a three year old appears.
      Portia xx

  • AnnieA says:

    I am indeed a fan. While the first few minutes are quite sharp to my nose like an aftershave it dries down beautifully. An excellent Christmas/winter scent.

    • Portia says:

      Hey AnnieA,
      Is it the ginger or cinnamon do you think that punches your nose?
      Portia xx

      • AnnieA says:

        The ginger…? Something reminding me of machine oil. P.S. Fanciest high tea ever was at The Grand in Brighton

        • Portia says:

          OOOHHH! Thanks for the Brighton tip AnnieA, next time we are in old blighty will definitely do the pilgrimage. Jin has never seen the Indian Pavilion too.
          Portia xx

  • cinnamon says:

    Alas this is a Serge I haven’t sampled. On the list now. But tea as the first note. I’m yet again hankering after tea ‘things’. The Miller Harris candle I read about, and when I was tooling around the awful Laduree website recently I discovered they offer candles and one is based on black tea. So with you regarding high tea. There used to be a cafe in London called Bea’s of Bloomsbury which did an outstanding tea. But they expanded too much and too quickly and disappeared. Sigh.

    • Portia says:

      OOOH Cinnamon, I bought a bunch of those Laduree candles for gifts. Can’t remember which one I kept for myself but it had a yellow cup with white nameplate. It was beautiful. A light green one is the pen holder now on a friends home office desk.
      Portia xx

  • Filomena says:

    Yes, I am a fan and always wear it on Christmas Day.