Usually with Creed fragrances, it's easy to smell where the money went. But with Asian Green Tea I'm, well, wondering where the money went.
I know it's part of the "cheaper" Acqua Originale line (you pay $300 instead of $500, a real bargain), and I get that it's a spring spritz with limited strength. Its strength isn't the problem. This performs very well on me. What bugs me is its quality. I don't smell a $300 shimmering summer perfume. I'm not sensing months of old-world maceration techniques, infusing hundreds of complex naturals and high-end synthetics. I'm not really getting much in the way of development, or note separation. This is definitely not a Millesime, or even a "grey cap" EDT.
Asian Green Tea is a one-trick pony of one standout natural "tea" note for about ninety minutes off the top, which my brain affirms is of the "green" variety. My mom said it smells like fresh celery, and she's not wrong. But hey, *sniff sniff* - my brain also tells me the tea is conjoined to the odor of the metal tin in which it's housed. Realism. A bit later a sweet chord emerges, embodying a tight interplay of blackcurrant, violet, freesia, and heliotrope, with perhaps a teeny-tiny rose, and distant smidgen of jasmine for texture. And the "texture" here is creamy, soapy, clean. When I think of Creed, I think of perfumery in motion, the sixth sense of olfactory bliss. Here, I'm forced to think of shower time in a luxury hotel.
Creed should consider the Acqua Originale line rough drafts of Millesimes. This one is linear, like an $80 designer on discount at Marshalls.