Sebastián and Miguel Ángel Benito produce Mallorca’s most famous perfume: Flor d'Ametler. This year alone, no less than 200,000 almond blossoms were picked by hand; in Binissalem, Son Ferriol and Lloseta.

Each one of the flowers is picked from the tree by hand. Then it is cleaned, inspected and selected according to size. It has to have five immaculate leaves if it wants to become the "fragrance of Mallorca". The colour is also important: "The pink-coloured blossoms above all are especially appreciated as they possess a lot of aroma", says Miguel Ángel Benito, one of the two brothers of the "Rover" family business in Es Pont d'Inca.

On the island of Mallorca one can find some 120 varieties of almonds, so a perfume expert informs us. They bear names such as Rolleta, Pons or Mollar. And they flower at different times of year, a fact that greatly facilitates life for the Benito family as it allows them to gather and process the crop gradually.

At the dedicated distilleries the flowers are submerged in alcohol together with a substance that fixes the aroma and then they are kept for between two and ten years.

The recipe for this Island essence – it is produced both as perfume and Eau de Toilette – derives from the first half of the past century. A Mallorcan from the capital, by the name of Bernat Vallori, is given credit for this discovery. "The perfume was created at a time when Mallorca was still Mallorca", recounts Benito, that is to say practically cut off from the rest of the world. One just had to make do with what there was on the Island.

Subsequently, the Benito family acquired the rights although they have never changed the actual ingredients. These continue being as authentic as they were at the beginning. Hence the products should not contain any type of colouring or preservative.

In every ‘flacon’ that leaves the distillery there floats a flower which amounts to the badge or the trademark of the product. "The fact of introducing a flower in each little bottle is for me, in these times of war and violence, like a message of love", this master craftsman of perfumes confides to us.

Apart from Flor d'Ametler, the company makes natural cosmetic products, creams and oils for the skin, likewise based on the almond. And what happens to those enormous quantities of almonds that the trees produce despite the rigorous annual pruning carried out? "They are turned into the richest sweet in the world" says Miguel Ángel Benito "into Turrón!" [similar to nougat].