Common Scents: Quorum

Quorum claims to be a ‘woody’ fragrance for men. Created in the early eighties by Messrs Benaïm, Gavarry and Mateu, its ingredients include artemisia, caraway, lemon, bergamot, grapefruit, pine, patchouli, sandalwood, carnation, cyclamen and jasmine, oakmoss, leather, tobacco and amber. Well might it be called ‘Quorum’; with a list so long, frequent roll calls must be taken to ensure that sufficient ingredients are present and correct in order to proceed with its distinctive fragrance.

I resented ‘going out’ at night when I was a student to pubs. My teetotalism and parsimony made me naturally undisposed to patronise them, but the inevitable transfer of acrid cigarette smoke to every single article of clothing I wore sealed the deal. If I had wanted to reek of fag ash, I’d have chosen to become a smoker. Banning smoking from public places is one of the few laws that the Blair government of the 2000s got right (which I opposed at the time, curiously). Now I can eat to my belly’s contentment at Weatherspoon’s and come back smelling as fresh as a daisy. Yet thanks to Quorum, I literally dowse myself with the scent of tobacco. Does that provide it with its alleged manliness? Is this a marketing ploy to persuade heterosexual men that smelling nice is not the preserve of womenfolk?

Of course, the tobacco leaf with which the perfumer works his art is not the stale, common sweepings puffed by addicts, but the rich, warm aroma of those carefully selected, dark, curled leaves, their ancient woody flavours adding to the scent’s aromatic character. In the right place and in the correct proportion, even tobacco can be a luxurious ingredient, and without its carcinogenic downsides.

Things like danger, illness, economic limitations, demonic attention, persecution and weakness can actually do us good. In too high a concentration or too great a frequency, they might push us over the edge. Yet each, in turn, can be used for our good, developing our trust in God and teaching us to pray the better. Do not marvel that the writer of these words wears tobacco juice upon his chin, and do not question a wise God when He permits unpleasant things to come our way. Wisely managed and appropriately rationed, much good can come, and better character is formed.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

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