Linden Blossom

Origin

Europe, particularly Germany, France and Eastern Europe

The smell

Honeyed and pollen-rich with a soft floral sweetness touched by fresh hay and apricot. There is a warm beeswax facet underpinned by green tea and nectar-like nuances. The overall impression is luminous, transparent and fleeting rather than heady.

Key quality

Calming, anti-inflammatory and diaphoretic. Used traditionally as a soothing herbal infusion (tisane).

Historical use

In medieval Europe, linden trees were planted at village centres as places of gathering, justice and community, with their blossoms tied to love, fertility and feminine grace. The flower-tea was famously immortalised in Proust's Swann's Way as the trigger of involuntary memory.