Narrator: Right now, these jasmine buds
don't smell like anything.
But once they bloom,
producers in India process their coveted aroma
into one of the priciest oils in the world.
Just 1 kilogram of jasmine oil
can cost over $5,000.
It's a key ingredient in luxury perfumes.
But to get 1 kilogram of some jasmine oil,
these women need to pluck over 5,000 buds.
So, what does jasmine smell like?
And why is the oil so expensive?
For hundreds of years, jasmine has been used in India
to make garlands and headpieces for special occasions.
Its scent is sweet, fruity, and floral,
blending well with other fragrances.
And while India grows over 80 varieties of jasmine,
jasmine grandiflorum and sambac
are two of the most commercially valuable.
Raja: It's been considered very divine.
And sambac especially, even amongst other flowers,
is considered one notch superior.
It's the most preferred flower.
Thierry: Jasmine sambac has this ease,
this friendliness, this happiness.
It is a joyful scent.
Narrator: Jasmine sambac thrives in Madurai,
the jasmine capital of India.
Like any flower, jasmine produces a strong scent
only after it blooms.
But local sellers don't want jasmine flowers.
They want the buds.
That's because once the flower blooms,
the scent only lasts a few days.
The buds last longer, so they're easier to transport,
whether it be for garlands or oil extraction.
Raja runs a jasmine-oil company.
But before Raja can produce the oil,
he'll need to wait for the day's harvest.
Jasmine is a night-blooming flower.
To maximize the harvest
and ensure the buds make it to the markets in time,
harvesters head to the fields early.
Rathi is one of a handful of women
tasked with plucking the buds.
It's not as simple as grabbing each bud she sees.
Raja: Only the right bud blooms that day.
Otherwise, it's not going to bloom.
So if it doesn't bloom, no fragrance.
Narrator: Deciphering which buds to harvest
requires a keen eye,
one that Rathi has trained over the last 10 years
in these fields.
Narrator: Rathi goes to each bush one by one,
plucking thousands of buds
before she collects a kilogram of jasmine.
Gathering that much takes her about an hour.
The work must be done gently, by hand,
so as not to damage the buds.
Damaged or wilted buds mean more work for Rathi.
Raja: Jasmine is a very laborious picking process.
A kilo of jasmine, just to give you perspective,
will have about 5,000 to 6,000 independent flowers.
So to pick 1 kilo, they have to move 5,000 times.
The hand moves back and forth 5,000 times
to pick just 1 kilo of flowers.
Narrator: But that's still a tiny fraction
of the buds needed to produce a kilogram of oil.
For 1 kilogram of jasmine oil,
Raja needs 1 metric ton, or 1,000 kilograms, of flowers.
As she works, Rathi collects the buds in her sari
to protect them and preserve their fragrance.
Narrator: She'll harvest for about five hours straight.
It's tedious and tiring,
but it's critical for her to keep moving
before it gets too hot.
Then the buds head to the local market.
Narrator: Murugan is used to the market's chaotic energy.
He's been sourcing jasmine for oil production for 18 years.
Practically all corners of the market are full of buyers,
bags of jasmine buds, and scales to determine
the proper quantity for sale.
The rate today is 500 rupees per kilogram.
Before buying, he assesses the buds closely
to determine if the size will be worth the price.
Narrator: When the sun has set,
Raja's employees begin unloading bags full of jasmine buds
back at the factory.
The first step is to spread them out with rakes,
and then again with their hands and feet.
Spreading out the buds is crucial to preserving them.
Leaving them in a big pile would generate heat,
which would again cause them to wilt.
Then Raja's team waits until the flowers begin to bloom.
Raja: The minute it starts blooming,
it starts emitting the fragrance.
And then, after some time,
you can see it emits a bad fragrance,
so you know there's a constant chemical reaction
that's happening in the flower.
For us, it's so important to capture the fragrance
at the right moment, which is soon after it blooms,
which is best in terms of yield and the smell.
Narrator: Like several other white flowers,
jasmine is rich in indole.
Ironically, indole is found in feces too.
In the case of feces, there's too much indole,
so it produces an unpleasant smell.
But in limited amounts, it creates an appealing aroma,
as it does with jasmine.
When the jasmine has bloomed,
Raja's team loads the flowers
into four 5,000-liter extractors.
The flowers then soak in a solvent.
Once the solvent absorbs the smell of the flowers,
they remove all of the liquid.
They're left with this waxy, hard substance called concrete.
It's what Raja uses to finally extract the oil.
Raja: You add alcohol into the concretes,
and then the concrete is separated off the waxes.
It's filtered, and then we get the absolute.
Narrator: Jasmine sambac is the most coveted
of all jasmine flowers, hence the high price.
At its peak, jasmine sambac flowers
can cost 10 times more than other types of jasmine.
And when it comes to the final price of the oil,
the majority of it depends on the cost of the flower itself.
Raja: About 60% of the bulk of the cost
is attributed towards the flower cost itself.
So it varies depending on the price
of the flowers every year.
The cost of 1 kilo of concrete
is around $2,750 to $3,000,
and the absolute is almost a double,
like $5,500-plus per kilo of absolute.
Narrator: But jasmine sambac oil
wasn't always this valuable.
In fact, Raja says it was rarely harvested
before the launch of Dior's J'Adore fragrance.
Raja: That was when the sambac became the in thing.
Before that, sambac was grown in India,
but it was not really extracted.
Narrator: Today, jasmine-oil extracts travel from India
all the way to Paris, where they will be used
in many high-end fragrances, particularly at Guerlain.
Guerlain sources jasmine sambac oil directly from Raja.
Thierry: The signature of the house is made with jasmine
and five other ingredients.
So jasmine is almost everywhere.
Narrator: The company produces all of its fragrance blends
in-house, including Mon Guerlain.
Thierry: Jasmine sambac is the star of Mon Guerlain.
You have the top note of lavender
blend then in the jasmine sambac floralcy and joy.
Then comes the sandalwood and the vanilla.
This is such a soft and beautiful fragrance.
It's weird.
Sometimes you even surprise yourself.
Smelling memories.