Booth M.
Rebirth. Beginnings. Community. Culture. Nostalgia. Storytelling. Release
Booth M. (Booth Memorial) is my origin story. Booth Memorial Hospital is where I was born and just like the origin story of this brand I needed to tell my story from the very beginning.
Booth Memorial Hospital, January 8, 1968.
Historical reference image. Source unknown. Used as inspiration for the Booth M. fragrance concept.
When people create fragrances sometimes it’s based off happy moments in their lives like a wedding, but in this case, it’s a little bit of a mourning. The scent itself is a reminder of the smells and places I’ve now lost. Booth Memorial Hospital has now been rebranded as New York Presbyterian Hospital. Like many Queens natives, it is where my story began. I can’t go back and look up and see the big Booth Memorial letters anymore on the hospital. Booth Memorial (Now New York Presbyterian) sits in Flushing, NY which is home to a large asian community but at large is home to black and brown communities as a whole.
Flushing, Queens, New York.
Photo by Elizabeth Bick, courtesy of NYC Tourism + Conventions.
Used for editorial and storytelling purposes only.
There is also consistent gentrification in NYC and the increased discrimination against immigrant populations contributes to stores open and close within a year. The rising costs of renting creates many migrations of businesses and people out of the city such as myself and many others.
This fragrance is the melding of cultures and great migrations of all kinds. All people coming to one city for the chance at life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Another element of this story that inspired and moved me, like many others across the world, is the song “Debir tirar mas fotos” by Bad Bunny as everytime I go back to NYC there are places and people I once loved and cherished constantly leaving and moving. A reminder to always live in the present and enjoy things while you have it because nothing lasts.
One of the happly places I would go to just about every two weeks on payday was a small shop that I found on social media where I would get the viral cheese tea from a store called Mi Tea (Now Closed). My order was a semi-sweet peach oolong tea with a cheese cap. The way I was taught you are supposed to drink it is you tilt it slightly to the side so you can get sips of the sweet peach oolong tea and a little bit of foam all the way through until the bottom.
It was also a part of the beginning of my quintessential adulthood. I was making “big people” money for the first time and I had a job right in Lower Manhattan.
Cheese/Milk Tea Beverage.
Image used for inspiration and storytelling purposes. Original source: ELITEA.
All trademarks and images belong to their respective owners.
As you smell this fragrance it’s very sweet top heavy, like the drink, and then it melts into a tea like floral scent, grounded with sandalwood at the very end. The inclusion of Iso E super helps to lift the notes.
The different notes are layered with different scent memories. Together they make cheese tea apart they become something else. Anytime I think about cheesecakes, peaches, strawberries, and florals I think of my late grandma, Rose, and all the time I spent with her making cheesecake. This is also a piece of honor her legacy. I am who I am because of her. Peaches are one of my favorite fruits and its also a common southern delicacy and has roots in the south. Then the tea which is a beverage and a form of medicine that heals and cleanses the soul.
As you smell this scent I hope you’re filled with scent memories that I can share with you. This is a story of how one’s sadness can turn into a sweet memory for all to be enjoyed.
This is Chapter 3 in an on-going collection. The story is only just getting started.
Here are some writings you should check out about the connection between New York City, specifically the northeast during the Great Migration and the Taiwanese dessert, Cheese tea.
More about the Great Migration, specifically in New York.