There is an alcohol group in the molecule of maltol and ethyl maltol: these substances can form esters: You can see a couple of examples on the right side in the picture below. The alcohol group of maltol / ethyl maltol is important for the interaction with the "sweet" receptors, when esters lose their caramel smell and gain an alcohol-fruity nuance, which is characteristic for these compounds.

Even contemporary masculine fragrances have been generously splashed by the sugary trend: Almost every second men's fragrance can be designated as a gourmand fougère, with an amount of etyl maltol comparable to the content of this material in Angel.FRAGRANCE NOTES - Vanilla, Sweet. An irresistible sweet scent of vanilla notes that immerses your senses in a deliciously sweet aroma Furfural is a source material for synthesis of many fragrant materials. Its elder brother, 5-methyl furfural, is also used in perfumery; it has a sweetish caramel odor of burnt sugar with coffee, pastries, spices, and maple syrup nuances. Its structural isomer, 2-acetylfuran, is more balsamic and "roasted," with notes of almond, cocoa, and coffee–it is very popular as a flavor in foods and drinks. Without this compound, it is difficult to recreate the flavor and fragrance of tamarind, and in trace amounts it is important in making the scents and tastes of alcoholic beverages, cereals, tea, tobacco, and even tomatoes. Furaneol, or strawberry furanone, is found in the scents of natural strawberry and pineapple. Its relative, Homofuronol (again, we replace methyl with ethyl) also naturally occurs in coffee, raspberry, lovage, soy sauce, etc. Diluted, it has a very pleasant fruity smell with some wine like and butterscotch-caramel nuances. it was one of the first to overdose it that much. But it was in the brief apparently. Mugler wanted something to remind him of his childhood, with Barbapapa, stuff like that. But then, the accord that Olivier made, of course, that was original." Ethyl maltol, can be rightfully called a synthetic ingredient: it has not yet been found in nature. Pfizer has patented its Veltol Plus and methods of its synthesis in more than 20 countries.

At the beginning of the 1940s, maltol was produced on an industrial scale, but it was the flavor industry that first took an interest in the compound, since it turned out to be very useful in the reconstruction of a variety of flavors – from soups and ketchup (50-100 parts per million) to all kinds of confectionery (up to 3300 ppm).Maltol has been produced under different trade marks, like for example Corps Praline. In 1962, Pfizer trademarked the name Veltol. Maltol was then obtained from kojic acid, which was produced by certain species of fungi, like Aspergillus oryzae; in Japanese these are called koji (by the way, soy sauce is also fermented with these fungi). Initially, when Givaudan introduced this compound, Levistamel was mainly used to reduce the amount of vanillin used in perfume, while preserving its overall sweetness. It was truly recognized when Maurice Roucel, a master of overdosing, put Levistamel in the center of his gourmand coffee fougère Rochas Man. At the same time another remarkable perfume, Yohji Homme, was released. Despite its popularity in the flavor industry, perfumers had been quite reluctant to introduce fragrances of cakes and praline to modern perfumery. Here is what Mark Buxton recalls in one of his interviews:

Of course, the use of maltol and ethyl maltol is not limited to gourmand compositions, in reasonable quantities they are added to floral, fruity, and even woody (especially coniferous-balsamic) fragrances. In the late 60s, Pfizer introduced a new product, Veltol Plus. Replacing the methyl substituent with ethyl in the maltol molecule (by replacing formaldehyde with acetaldehyde during one of its synthesis steps), they reached a substance that smelled 4-6 times more intense – the same cotton candy, but with a more pronounced fruity strawberry aspect and less burnt. Methyl cyclopentenolone is closer to a maple syrup kind of scent; it is also known as cyclotene, or maple lactone. As in the case of maltol, the replacement of methyl with ethyl allows to increase the intensity of its fragrance; ethyl cyclopentenolone (ECP), or ethyl cyclotene smells several times stronger. Just like maltols, cyclopentenolones can form fruity-flavored esters. Probably, the word ethyl maltol is familiar to everyone by now: it is the notorious substance that smells like cotton candy and strawberry jam. An overdose of it glorified Mugler's Angel, which, in its prime, started the big gourmand trend we have been enjoying already for 30 years! But the history of using "sugar" in perfumery began long before 1992, the year when Olivier Cresp and Yves de Chirin introduced Angel.Nevertheless, it seems that the time of overly sweet gourmand fragrances has passed, and modern gourmand fragrances tend to have some volume at the expense of sweetness, as well as some unexpected turns and contrasts; they have become more complex, interacting with other fragrance genres. However, it is unlikely they completely disappear; they will stay with us forever, like chypres, fougères, eaux de cologne, floral aldehydics, and amber perfumes.