BAY has a peculiarly complex scent and flavour. There’s a wonderful piney, sweet spiciness—a warm coming together of citrus, rose, cola, cardamom, nutmeg, vanilla and pine—together with a fruit-wood smokiness that’s stronger in the dried leaves. There’s more than a little cola about the scent: even now, if I rub a soft, supple bay leaf in summer, it reminds me of the taste of the soft, sugary cola-bottle sweets I so often spent my dinner money on.
Unless you’re
