Dinner was garlic prawns, there were two glasses of red, and the night ended with an espresso you didn't need. Now you're walking to the door and you're about to find out if this goes where you hope. A breath spray for kissing earns its spot in your pocket in exactly this minute. Two sprays of Dragon Breath in the restaurant bathroom or on the walk to the car, and the mouth goes from coffee and wine to bright, wet and clean-feeling in a few seconds.
People notice. When the Oral Health Foundation surveyed British singles for National Smile Month in 2019, 85% said bad breath would put them off a new partner, and 80% said they wouldn't go on a second date with someone whose breath was bad on the first. That ranked above bad jokes, lateness and poor dress sense.
Two minutes before you lean in
Most of what you eat and drink on a date works against you here. Colgate's dating advice singles out garlic before a kiss, and points to meat fibres that lodge between teeth. Live Science explains that the caffeine in coffee slows saliva, which is why the mouth feels dry and stale after an after-dinner espresso, and that coffee's sulfur compounds add their own smell. Add two glasses of red and by the end of the night your mouth tastes like all of it.
You can't brush your teeth at the table. You can step away for thirty seconds. That's the window a spray is built for. The bathroom before dessert, the hallway outside the bar, the lift up to their floor. Nobody sees a thing. The bottle goes back in your pocket or bag, and you walk back out with a mouth that feels new.
What one spray feels like
Dragon Breath is a 50 ml mouth spray made from the root of chilcuague (Heliopsis longipes). The first second is earthy and a little peppery. Then a bright, electric buzz spreads across the tongue and mouth, and the mouth waters fast. When that settles, a clean, fresh feeling stays behind.
The saliva is the part people talk about. One customer, filmed on their very first spray, put it this way. "Oh wow, the saliva flow." In a few seconds the dry, coffee-heavy feeling is gone and the mouth feels wet and awake. It's a fun thing to feel right before a kiss, and it's a good story if your date asks what you just did.
Start with one spray. Once you know the feeling, you can go up to five. For a date, one or two is plenty.
“Oh wow, the saliva flow.”
Mints, gum or a breath spray for kissing?
Here is what most people reach for, and how each one plays out in the last two minutes of a date.
- Mints. A classic peppermint tin lists sugar as the first ingredient (one best-seller reads sugar, gum arabic, natural flavors, gelatin). A mint takes a while to dissolve, so you're either crunching it on the doorstep or kissing someone with a lozenge in your cheek. The tin also rattles.
- Gum. Emily Post's etiquette advice is that gum is fine if you chew quietly and keep a wrapper or tissue ready to get rid of it. On a date that means chewing through the walk home, then finding somewhere to put it before you lean in. Nobody wants to be the person who parks gum on a wrapper in front of their date.
- Sweetened pharmacy sprays. Plenty of pharmacy sprays are mint-flavoured and sweetened (one long-running aerosol lists sodium saccharin), and Wikipedia's entry on breath spray notes that some brands make sugar free versions because sugar is a concern for teeth. What you get is a burst of mint, and that's all.
- Dragon Breath. Sugar free, vegan, gluten free and non-GMO. No chewing and nothing to throw away. One or two sprays and you're done, and the buzz, the saliva and the fresh finish are something a mint doesn't do.
For a first kiss, the spray is the obvious pick. It takes two seconds, and when you lean in your mouth is empty.
Breath spray before a date, step by step
- Before you leave home, put the bottle in the pocket you'll reach for without looking. It's small enough for a jeans coin pocket or a clutch.
- After the main course or the last drink, excuse yourself. One or two sprays in the bathroom, and a sip of water if you like.
- If the night moves on to a second place, spray again in the car or on the walk.
- Right before the goodbye, one more if you want it. It takes two seconds and you can do it while they're finding their keys.
Dragon Breath – Chilcuague Extract
50 ml mouth spray. Wild-harvested chilcuague root, dual-extracted. 250+ sprays.
Add to bagMore than 250 sprays in a bottle that fits your pocket
A bottle holds more than 250 sprays. At two sprays a date that's well over a hundred nights out. The extract is sealed in Miron violet glass, which keeps light off it and adds a lot of life to the quality and strength of the extract. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. Dark Miron glass is the gold standard, and it's what Mara uses. Air and light are what dull plant extracts over time, and a sealed spray keeps both out. A loose root or a bag of powder on a shelf gets neither protection, and you can't use either one discreetly in a restaurant bathroom anyway.
If the nerves before a date are the bigger worry, here is our one-spray ritual for first date nerves, from the last hour to the walk in.
Where the root comes from
Chilcuague grows in the Sierra Gorda of Central Mexico, across Guanajuato, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí, where it's also called golden root (raíz de oro). Mexican ethnobotanists, Cilia-López and colleagues among them, record that people there have long chewed the root and used it as a spice. The buzz comes from affinin (also called spilanthol), which HPLC testing measured at 6.9 to 8.5 mg per gram of root.
Dragon Breath's root is wild-harvested, from growth zones the Mara team selects with the help of local elders, then dual-extracted in organic solutions. The whole story of the plant is in our chilcuague guide.
Dragon Breath considerations
Our recommendation, as on the product page: if you're pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or allergic to plants in the daisy family, ask your doctor before using it.
Questions people ask
Does breath spray work for kissing?
A spray is the quickest option before a kiss because there's nothing left in your mouth afterwards. With Dragon Breath, one or two sprays take your mouth from stale to wet and fresh-feeling in seconds.
Is a mouth spray for kissing better than gum?
For the moment itself, yes. Gum has to be chewed and then got rid of before you lean in, while a mouth spray takes two seconds and leaves nothing behind.
Will my date taste the spray?
Dragon Breath tastes earthy and a little peppery for a second, then the buzz and the fresh feeling take over. Once the buzz settles, what's left is a clean, fresh feeling and a wet mouth.
How many sprays should I use before a date?
Start with one. Once you know the feeling you can use up to five, though one or two is plenty before a date.
