Not drawn yet: a drawing of what it smells like.

2-Furfurylthiol

Ingredients · Sweet · heart note

2-Furfurylthiol

Say itTOO-FUR-fur-il-THYE-awl

Freshly roasted coffee when diluted; burnt, sulfurous and rubbery when strong.

What it is
A molecule made in a lab.
Where it comes from
nature-identical
When you smell it
Heart: the first hours.
What perfumers do with it
Parts-per-million doses give realistic roasted coffee to gourmand and smoky accords.
Worth knowing
It was identified in coffee aroma in the 1920s by Tadeus Reichstein, later a Nobel laureate in medicine.
Also called
Furfuryl mercaptan; coffee mercaptan

Not on the label of any of the 232 perfumes read so far.