LAVANDULA ANGUSTIFOLIA ‘COOKIE’ – EFFERVESCENT
Light violet in colour, the beautiful ‘Cookie’ cultivar owes its existence to a handful of seeds planted at Nanami Lavender Farm near Eugowra NSW in the 1990’s and a text book inspired assessment of the 80 plants to emerge by Bruce Townsend. This plant he named after his mother and while the original plant has long since passed on, the fourteen cuttings Bruce originally took have now been reproduced to a level where Cookie’s viability as an oil cultivar is apparent. This plant is still in the early stages of its commercial plantings so we currently are only producing small quantities of this oil however we hope these quantities will increase significantly over the next couple of years.
ESSENTIAL OIL
The essential oil of the Cookie cultivar fits entirely within the Pharmacopeia Standards and also balances well with the ISO benchmarks. When comparing the balance of the key lavender compounds, linalool and linalyl acetate, L.a Cookie is definitely skewed towards the ester compound, linalyl acetate, which can be high as 46.75% with the alcohol, linalool, usually settling around the 21 – 22% mark. The total ester content can be as high as 55% when including along with the linalyl acetate, significant levels of lavandulyl, octen-3-yl, geranyl and neryl acetates. This balance towards the esters at an aromatic level means ‘Cookie’ essential oil is characterised by an effervescent floral freshness with a hint of peppermint especially evident in the oil’s front notes. These fresher notes are given depth and aromatic longevity with some spicy floral and peppery wood back notes due to significant levels of the more resonant compounds, octanone 3, cis & trans ß ocimene, ß -caryophyllene and α –santalene.
HYDROSOL
The hydrosol derived from the Cookie cultivar highlights a minty note alongside its light floral aroma. There is only a hint of the piquant honey notes typical of most angustifolia cultivars. As with all our lavender hydrosols Cookie comes off the still with a pH level well below 4.5, giving it a high level of astringency.
TYPICAL PHYTOCHEMICAL PROFILE RANGE, L.A. COOKIE 2005 – 2014
linalool 21.51 – 26.34 • linalyl acetate 36.37- 46 .75 • lavandulol 0.11 – 0. 81 • lavandulyl acetate 2.67 – 3.33 •• limonene/ ß-phellandrene 0.25 – 0.54 • octen -3-ol 0.08 – 0.15 •1,8-cineole 0.42 - 0.61• cis-ß-ocimene 3.61 – 4.22 • trans-ß-ocimene 3.56 – 6.12 • 3-octanone 2.39 - 3.39 • octen-3-yl acetate 1.89 – 2.62 • geranyl acetate 0.35 – 1.08 • neryl acetate 0.11 -0.46 •camphor 0.011 – 0.46 • borneol 0.36 – 1.26 • terpinen-4-ol 0.73 – 1.17 • α- terpineol 0.13 -1.49 • ß – caryophyllene 2.62 – 3.43 • (E)-beta-farsenene 0.75 – 0.98 • α –santalene 1.06 - 1.28