A suitsusaun - the Estonian smoke sauna - is a sauna without a chimney. When the fire is lit, the smoke has nowhere to escape: it fills the whole room, rolling along the ceiling and sinking into the log walls while the sauna heats. Before anyone bathes, the fire is allowed to die down completely and the smoke is aired out through the door or a small vent. What remains is deep, stored heat - and a scent that no other sauna on earth can imitate.

We are an Estonian brand, and the smoke sauna is where many of us first learned to pay attention to scent at all. Here is what a suitsusaun is, what its aroma is made of, and the delicate question of whether essential oils belong anywhere near it.

What makes a smoke sauna a smoke sauna

A smoke sauna is a log building with a large stone stove and no chimney. Heating is slow work: the fire burns for several hours, often half a day, while smoke drifts through the room and out through a small hatch or the open door. When the stones are properly hot, the fire is left to burn out, the room is aired, benches are wiped clean of soot, and a first ladle of water drives the last fumes out. Only then does the bathing begin: quiet, dim, unhurried, late into the evening.

The heartland of this tradition is southern Estonia, above all Võromaa. In 2014, the smoke sauna tradition of Võromaa was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity - not the building alone but the whole custom: heating and airing the sauna, bathing with whisks, and the old practice of smoking meat in the sauna's gentle heat. For families in the south this is not heritage behind glass - it is still how Saturday works.

If you know the Finnish sauna, the family resemblance is obvious. But where a Finnish stove sauna offers a clean, almost neutral canvas for the bright burst of löyly, a smoke sauna arrives with its scent already written into the walls.

The scent of smoke, tar and old timber

The smell of a smoke sauna is hard to describe to someone who has never sat in one. It is not campfire smoke and not smoked meat, though both are distant cousins - it is an aroma laid down in layers over years of heating, several voices sounding at once:

• Smoke - the soft, faintly sweet smoke of alder and birch logs, soaked so deep into the timber that the sauna smells of it even when cold;
• Tar and soot - the resinous, gently charred depth of walls turned velvet black, which gives the scent its backbone;
• Old timber - logs seasoned by decades of heat and moisture, carrying notes of honey, warm dust and dusk;
• The whisk - a green flash of fresh birch leaves that opens the moment steam meets leaf;
• The steam itself - hot water on hot stones, lifting all of the above into the air and pressing it onto your skin.

No two smoke saunas smell the same: wood, firing habits and age all leave their mark. An old Võromaa sauna carries the memory of hundreds of fires, and you can smell them, faintly, in the dark.

The whisk: the original sauna scent

Long before anyone in Estonia had heard of essential oils, scent was brought into the sauna from the forest. The viht - the leafy whisk used to gently beat the skin - is both a bathing tool and the oldest sauna fragrance we have.

• Birch is the classic. A freshly soaked birch whisk gives the steam a green, slightly sweet, hay-like scent - Midsummer in leaf form, and what most Estonians simply mean by sauna smell.
• Oak is darker and more solid. Oak leaves smell earthy and tannic, like the forest floor in autumn, and the whisk holds together for a long evening.
• Juniper is the sharpest and most aromatic, bringing resin and almost peppery notes into the steam - the scent of island and coastal saunas, used sparingly because it is stern on the skin.

A quiet treasure is the whisk's soaking water: ladled onto the stones, it fills the room with leaf scent even when nobody has the strength left to whisk. Our grandparents' scent craft, though they never gave it a name.

Do essential oils belong in a smoke sauna?

The honest answer: a traditional smoke sauna does not need added scent. The smoke is the scent - complete, deep and settled over decades. Dropping lavender or sweet orange into it would be like spreading frosting on good rye bread: nothing wrong with either, but they spoil each other.

Essential oils are far more at home in an ordinary wood-fired or electric stove sauna, which has no scent layer of its own - our complete guide to sauna scents covers that world. If you still want to experiment in a smoke sauna, do it lightly and wisely:

• choose forest notes that do not argue with smoke - pine, spruce or cedarwood;
• add just 1-2 drops to a full bucket of steam water, never neat oil straight onto the stones;
• never use oils while the sauna is being heated or anywhere near open flame - essential oils are flammable, and a smoke sauna's keris is heated by open fire.

Bringing the smoke sauna mood home

Not everyone has a smoke sauna in the back garden - but a scent memory can be woken at home. The closest routes are dry, woody, resinous notes in a diffuser:

• Cedarwood essential oil - warm, dry and woody, the nearest cousin of old sauna logs and soot-dark walls;
• Pine essential oil - resinous and open, like the forest where the whisks and firewood came from;
• Spruce essential oil - fresh and green, like the moment you step out to cool down under a winter sky.

Try two drops of cedarwood, one of pine and one of spruce. It is not a smoke sauna - nothing in a bottle is - but it is a window facing one. All our forest oils are in the shop.

A word on safety

A smoke sauna asks for skill and respect. The main risk while heating is carbon monoxide: if the fire has not fully died down or the room has not been aired properly, fumes can linger. Let the embers burn out completely, air the room thoroughly through the door and vent, and throw a first ladle of steam to chase out the remains before bathing. For your first visits, go with an experienced host. The same calm applies to oils: keep them away from open flame, always dilute, and agree on scents with fellow bathers first.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What is a smoke sauna, in one sentence?
A: A chimneyless log sauna where smoke fills the room during heating and is aired out before bathing, leaving behind long, soft heat and a deep smoky scent.

Q: Where can I try a real smoke sauna?
A: In southern Estonia, above all Võromaa, where farms welcome guests in the spirit of the UNESCO-listed tradition. A sauna evening with a local host is the genuine article.

Q: Is a smoke sauna safe?
A: Heated and aired correctly, yes. Let the fire die down fully, ventilate the room well and throw the first steam before bathing; when in doubt, trust an experienced heater.

Q: Can I use essential oils in a smoke sauna?
A: Tradition does not call for them - the smoke itself is the fragrance. If you experiment, keep to 1-2 drops of pine, spruce or cedarwood in the steam water, and never use oils during heating or near open flame.