Taipei, July 2 (CNA) A tea-based perfume created by Taiwanese perfume company Pan Seven International (P.Seven) has bagged a top prize at the 2022 Art and Olfaction Awards (A+OA) in Florida, according to the list of winners released Saturday.

The Taiwan company won the "2022 Art and Olfaction Independent Award" with its flagship fragrance "Aged Tea (暗香)" designed by perfumers Pan Yu-ching (潘雨晴) and Huang Chien-shun(黃建勳).

Pan, the founder and creative director of P.Seven, participated virtually in the award ceremony Saturday morning, when Aged Tea was awarded the prize.

Speaking with CNA, Pan said she was moved to tears because the award was recognition of her years of hard work in the field of perfume making, which is a niche business in Taiwan and comes with a lot of pressure.

"I cried because I finally got my recognition," Pan said. "I finally did it."

In a market dominated generally by European floral and citrus scents, Pan said, she chose to make a light fragrance of tea leaves as her brand's specialty.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, she was taking her perfumes to expos in Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, but with businesses suffering globally due to the pandemic, she returned home to Hualien to focus on creating fragrances that she planned to launch over time.

Pan said she had a keen sensitivity for scents even when she's a child growing up in Hualien, and she later developed an affinity for the aroma of tea leaves during her five years working as a tea specialist.

While experimenting with ways to preserve the scent of tea, she began to delve into perfumery and has since been trying to create fragrances that capture elements of Taiwan, she said.

Her perfume lines feature signature Taiwan ingredients like shell ginger, makao litsea, betel nut flower and millet wine, she said.

P.Seven makes a wide variety of distinct tea leaf fragrances, because in the international community, Taiwan is commonly associated with tea, Pan said.

The prize winning fragrance "Aged Tea" is a more artistic product than P.Seven's other commercial perfumes, Pan said.

It was perfected after years of experimentation to harmonize its base scent with other complimentary ingredients to create an aura of serenity, she said.

The tea leaves used to make the base scent are aged for more than 10 years, and are intricately processed to create a refined fragrance, Pan said.

Since P.Seven was launched in 2012, Pan and the company have gained wide recognition, with Taiwan conglomerates such as Starlux Airlines and Wowprime commissioning them to design signature fragrances.

P.Seven perfumes can also be seen in malls in Japan and at international events like the Cannes Film Festival and New York Fashion Week.

The A+OA Awards is an annual nonprofit event held by U.S.-based Institute for Art and Olfaction. Each year, the judges conduct blind-testing on scents from all over the world.

"Aged Tea" not only won the Independent Award but also had the distinction of being the only entry from Asia to be listed among the top 10 fragrances in the independent category.