From the article: Speaking as one of those with particularly strong olfactory memory (I'm kind of a wine aroma geek), I've never been "enticed" by the artificial cinnamon, vanilla, or butter...
From the article:
If you’re familiar with the pretzel chain Auntie Anne’s, chances are that you know what its stores smell like. The distinctive, powerful fragrance of freshly-baked, buttery pretzels wafts across food courts in shopping centers, airports, and train stations around the world. Each sniff takes us back to the last time we found ourselves inhaling the delectable aroma. Even if you don’t eat Auntie Anne’s pretzels, their scent is hard to miss wherever the company’s 1,200 locations can be found. And Auntie Anne’s knows it.
“There are few scents more recognizable than the aroma of Auntie Anne’s,” the company’s chief brand officer declared in a press release announcing this signature scent would be bottled and sold as a perfume called “Knead.” Described as “a wearable scent infused with notes of buttery dough, salt and a hint of sweetness,” the fragrance sold out online within 10 minutes of its launch.
The pretzel fragrance is just one of many novelty perfumes and scented candles released by food chains like KFC and Pizza Hut. It’s become a common-enough marketing gimmick that a 2024 Japanese McDonald’s ad that fancifully depicted french-fry flavors as perfume bottles sparked a rumor that the company would actually sell them. (They did not, although McDonald’s did recently unveil the world’s first scented billboard in the Netherlands.)
Speaking as one of those with particularly strong olfactory memory (I'm kind of a wine aroma geek), I've never been "enticed" by the artificial cinnamon, vanilla, or butter aromas of mall outlets, the burned, over-roasted coffee scent of Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. But a homespun bakery's fresh-from-the-oven sourdough scent will get me salivating, a waft of soy sauce/garlic/hot peanut oil has me instantly craving Chinese food, and don't get me started on wine...
What food scents plug into memory or appetite for you?
Do you think that an appetizing smell changes your emotional tone or physiological responses?
Do you shop for ingredients by smell - e.g. ripeness of fruits and vegetables, aromatic components of spices to determine freshness?
When cooking, do you find yourself adjusting seasonings or ingredients to improve the scent?
Are there cuisines whose aromas you find particularly attractive or repellent? [For myself, I don't love foods that are heavily spiced with cumin - Mexican and some Middle Eastern recipes aren't favorites. Anything with star anise, limes, chillies, garlic, fresh tomatoes, chocolate, or peppercorns makes me happy.]
I am someone who generally is bad at smelling. Like 80-90% of the time I just don't smell anything. If I take big wifs or get super close I can generally smell everything, but only if I actively...
I am someone who generally is bad at smelling. Like 80-90% of the time I just don't smell anything. If I take big wifs or get super close I can generally smell everything, but only if I actively try. I think that has given me particularly strong feelings to things that are particularly aromatic.
Funnily enough Auntie Anne's does do it for me. I do start salivating smelling it, but that may also be because I more regularly go to an Amish pretzel shop that has fantastic food.
More generally the smell of bread browning is what I think I smell the most readily, and have developed the most affinity for. Other than that onion/garlic really gets me going, and while I usually include them, I barely smell carrot and celery cooking.
I can smell cumin well, and I think that may be why I do have an affinity for Mexican and Indian more so than for like Chinese. I am curious, does the cumin overwhelm the other smells for you, and make it just one note? My thought is perhaps because I was already missing those subtleties I end up just prefering something with a strong core scent.
When shopping for produce the only thing I have ever smelled for ripeness is pineapple. Are there other things I should be trying?
I actually went to the spice drawer, sniffed the cumin, and nibbled a few seeds just now to get a better handle on why I don't love it... There are plenty of dishes that contain cumin which I like...
I actually went to the spice drawer, sniffed the cumin, and nibbled a few seeds just now to get a better handle on why I don't love it... There are plenty of dishes that contain cumin which I like - curries with cumin as one spice component among many are great. But I've found Mexican dishes where cumin is the dominant flavor/aroma aren't as pleasing. There's a bitter undernote that's not quite right. Cumin plus coriander is even more displeasing, and I quite like coriander. But there's literally no accounting for taste/smell. Those are the human senses for which there's the greatest genetic variation, and they're quite fragile to physiological impairments from illness, allergy, and aging, as well as aversive memories (the smell of cherry cough syrup is not friendly, as far as I'm concerned).
As far as produce shopping, for my nose, there's a huge difference in aroma between garden-ripe fruits (including tomatoes) and those ripened in storage or unripe. You can judge most melons' ripeness by smell, color at the stem end, and a hollow sound when rapped with your knuckles.
I don't buy cilantro if it doesn't have that characteristic soapy aroma, and other fresh herbs should smell strongly of what they taste like. Even corn ears should have that fresh, vibrant corn silk smell, and the silk strands inside the husk should still be a little green. Fresh green beans should have a green bean smell, but they usually look limp by the time the aroma is gone. Same thing for mushrooms - by the time the fresh smell is gone, they usually look a little withered or spotty.
So much product is sold in plastic packaging now that's it's hard for me to do my best shopping anywhere other than the farmer's market. And if you're curious about how restaurants get better results than home cooking, that's part of it. Chefs buy at wholesale produce and farm markets where they can get the freshest, ripest, highest sensory-appeal ingredients.
We also develop cultural associations with smells. Lemon is common in cleaning products, so we associate its smell with cleanliness. Eucalyptus evokes saunas and spas. Cherry is a popular flavor...
We also develop cultural associations with smells.
Lemon is common in cleaning products, so we associate its smell with cleanliness. Eucalyptus evokes saunas and spas. Cherry is a popular flavor and scent in medicine. Rose and florals evoke femininity.
At least in the west. In Arabic cultures, rose is actually a masculine scent — though they prefer their rose to be a little darker.
My nonna had a rose scented bathroom, the soap, the potpourri, everything... I cannot eat rose in anything. I imagine it's similar to the cilantro soap gene but artificially instilled.
My nonna had a rose scented bathroom, the soap, the potpourri, everything... I cannot eat rose in anything. I imagine it's similar to the cilantro soap gene but artificially instilled.
Smells also have generational associations. Aldehydic florals—think of that really powdery floral scent, like Chanel No 5—were really hip with your nonna's generation way back when. Now it's...
Smells also have generational associations. Aldehydic florals—think of that really powdery floral scent, like Chanel No 5—were really hip with your nonna's generation way back when. Now it's thought of as an old lady scent. But fashion is cyclical: aldehydic florals are juuust starting to become edgy and cool again in a retro-chic way.
Folks in Buenos Aires seem to adore menthol candy, there's more of it in most shops I visited than even chocolate. All I get are unfavorable memories of Vicks and cough drops in "adult flavors" as...
Folks in Buenos Aires seem to adore menthol candy, there's more of it in most shops I visited than even chocolate. All I get are unfavorable memories of Vicks and cough drops in "adult flavors" as my mom used to put it.
Europeans often think rootbeer tastes like mouthwash or toothpaste because of the wintergreen. And in the Nordic countries, black licorice candy (including but not limited to Finnish salty...
Europeans often think rootbeer tastes like mouthwash or toothpaste because of the wintergreen. And in the Nordic countries, black licorice candy (including but not limited to Finnish salty licorice, known as salmiakki) is super popular and available all over, even though that flavor profile is much rarer and less widely liked in other places like the US.
I knew it was unusual for Europeans to like root beer, but not why. I appreciate the insight. It's not just candy in Nordic countries, they always want me to try this awesome drink they brought...
I knew it was unusual for Europeans to like root beer, but not why. I appreciate the insight.
It's not just candy in Nordic countries, they always want me to try this awesome drink they brought from home and love. I can't stand black licorice.
I was fed a lot of antibiotics, as a kid, that was "red" flavoured. I still can't eat most red candies or maraschino cherries or anything of that nature. Some rare exceptions being red skittles...
I was fed a lot of antibiotics, as a kid, that was "red" flavoured. I still can't eat most red candies or maraschino cherries or anything of that nature. Some rare exceptions being red skittles being okay.
Red Triaminic, for me. The orange was okay. The yellow-- I don't know what that flavor that was supposed to be but it was an effort not to throw that up every time.
Red Triaminic, for me. The orange was okay. The yellow-- I don't know what that flavor that was supposed to be but it was an effort not to throw that up every time.
I'm not sure I've had fancy ones then, or that I'd be willing to pay good money for something that is potentially not expensive enough to be good I had a bad experience recently, where I spent $23...
I'm not sure I've had fancy ones then, or that I'd be willing to pay good money for something that is potentially not expensive enough to be good
I had a bad experience recently, where I spent $23 buying a small bunch of Shine Muscat and then finding out that's far too little money for good shine muscat. I had paid an insane amount of money for Korean knock off shine muscat which taste exactly the same as the $3/lb green. Sad face.
So I just went to the farmer's market and was ambushed by the smell of an enormous bunch of fresh basil (like too big to fit in a shopping bag). [Temperatures have dropped into the 40's (°F) at...
So I just went to the farmer's market and was ambushed by the smell of an enormous bunch of fresh basil (like too big to fit in a shopping bag). [Temperatures have dropped into the 40's (°F) at night and it's all being harvested now.] Wasn't planning on cooking today, but it's apparently pesto o'clock once I get the last of my garden in.
Just something I've learned with pesto, if you don't use a mortar and pestle to make the pesto, try chucking the leaves in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to get them to break down a bit! The...
Just something I've learned with pesto, if you don't use a mortar and pestle to make the pesto, try chucking the leaves in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to get them to break down a bit! The freezing and thawing pops a lot of cell walls which helps you get the maximum flavor if you're using a food processor or blender.
Ugh, the Subway smell has to be the longest lasting, right? I used to work at Subway for maybe two weeks when I was in high school and ever since then, the smell of their bread is stuck in my...
Ugh, the Subway smell has to be the longest lasting, right? I used to work at Subway for maybe two weeks when I was in high school and ever since then, the smell of their bread is stuck in my nose.
Years later after high school and college and many jobs, I was working another job. There was a Subway near my work in the same shopping center as a Chinese restaurant my manager liked at the time. Once a month or so, my manager would order us all food from this Chinese restaurant for a team lunch. I'd always pick it up because I was the youngest on the team.
Every time I picked up this food, I swear, the moment I'd pull up to the shopping center and open my car's door, I'd smell Subway. I wasn't even going to Subway but because it was in the same shopping center as the restaurant I was going to, Subway's smell overpowered all the other smells in the area. And I know you all may think I'm exaggerating to be funny, but no, this is seriously how powerful the smell of their bread was and it probably still is. I'm just glad I don't find myself near a Subway nowadays.
subway does have a unique smell and it's gotta be more than their natural food processes right? It's something they bake into their plastic signs or spray every hour or something like that right?
subway does have a unique smell and it's gotta be more than their natural food processes right? It's something they bake into their plastic signs or spray every hour or something like that right?
I worked at McDonald's in high school and a little in college. I used to come home smelling like a mixture of everything, it wasn't awful but it just smelled salty and savory. I remember it was...
I worked at McDonald's in high school and a little in college. I used to come home smelling like a mixture of everything, it wasn't awful but it just smelled salty and savory. I remember it was most noticeable when I took a shower after and the hot water created a McDonald's steam smell that was super powerful.
That smell used to make me wander across the street for food even though I didn't want any. It was definitely childhood memories mixed in with "gosh darn it I'm an adult now and I can darn well...
That smell used to make me wander across the street for food even though I didn't want any. It was definitely childhood memories mixed in with "gosh darn it I'm an adult now and I can darn well eat junk food whenever I felt like it".
Several years of poor-to-mid McD experience has successfully re-wired the smell to trigger an avoidance response. I should be safe from them forevermore unless they decide to change the smell. .
From the article:
Speaking as one of those with particularly strong olfactory memory (I'm kind of a wine aroma geek), I've never been "enticed" by the artificial cinnamon, vanilla, or butter aromas of mall outlets, the burned, over-roasted coffee scent of Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. But a homespun bakery's fresh-from-the-oven sourdough scent will get me salivating, a waft of soy sauce/garlic/hot peanut oil has me instantly craving Chinese food, and don't get me started on wine...
What food scents plug into memory or appetite for you?
Do you think that an appetizing smell changes your emotional tone or physiological responses?
Do you shop for ingredients by smell - e.g. ripeness of fruits and vegetables, aromatic components of spices to determine freshness?
When cooking, do you find yourself adjusting seasonings or ingredients to improve the scent?
Are there cuisines whose aromas you find particularly attractive or repellent? [For myself, I don't love foods that are heavily spiced with cumin - Mexican and some Middle Eastern recipes aren't favorites. Anything with star anise, limes, chillies, garlic, fresh tomatoes, chocolate, or peppercorns makes me happy.]
I am someone who generally is bad at smelling. Like 80-90% of the time I just don't smell anything. If I take big wifs or get super close I can generally smell everything, but only if I actively try. I think that has given me particularly strong feelings to things that are particularly aromatic.
Funnily enough Auntie Anne's does do it for me. I do start salivating smelling it, but that may also be because I more regularly go to an Amish pretzel shop that has fantastic food.
More generally the smell of bread browning is what I think I smell the most readily, and have developed the most affinity for. Other than that onion/garlic really gets me going, and while I usually include them, I barely smell carrot and celery cooking.
I can smell cumin well, and I think that may be why I do have an affinity for Mexican and Indian more so than for like Chinese. I am curious, does the cumin overwhelm the other smells for you, and make it just one note? My thought is perhaps because I was already missing those subtleties I end up just prefering something with a strong core scent.
When shopping for produce the only thing I have ever smelled for ripeness is pineapple. Are there other things I should be trying?
I actually went to the spice drawer, sniffed the cumin, and nibbled a few seeds just now to get a better handle on why I don't love it... There are plenty of dishes that contain cumin which I like - curries with cumin as one spice component among many are great. But I've found Mexican dishes where cumin is the dominant flavor/aroma aren't as pleasing. There's a bitter undernote that's not quite right. Cumin plus coriander is even more displeasing, and I quite like coriander. But there's literally no accounting for taste/smell. Those are the human senses for which there's the greatest genetic variation, and they're quite fragile to physiological impairments from illness, allergy, and aging, as well as aversive memories (the smell of cherry cough syrup is not friendly, as far as I'm concerned).
As far as produce shopping, for my nose, there's a huge difference in aroma between garden-ripe fruits (including tomatoes) and those ripened in storage or unripe. You can judge most melons' ripeness by smell, color at the stem end, and a hollow sound when rapped with your knuckles.
I don't buy cilantro if it doesn't have that characteristic soapy aroma, and other fresh herbs should smell strongly of what they taste like. Even corn ears should have that fresh, vibrant corn silk smell, and the silk strands inside the husk should still be a little green. Fresh green beans should have a green bean smell, but they usually look limp by the time the aroma is gone. Same thing for mushrooms - by the time the fresh smell is gone, they usually look a little withered or spotty.
So much product is sold in plastic packaging now that's it's hard for me to do my best shopping anywhere other than the farmer's market. And if you're curious about how restaurants get better results than home cooking, that's part of it. Chefs buy at wholesale produce and farm markets where they can get the freshest, ripest, highest sensory-appeal ingredients.
Active gag response, here.
We also develop cultural associations with smells.
Lemon is common in cleaning products, so we associate its smell with cleanliness. Eucalyptus evokes saunas and spas. Cherry is a popular flavor and scent in medicine. Rose and florals evoke femininity.
At least in the west. In Arabic cultures, rose is actually a masculine scent — though they prefer their rose to be a little darker.
Anytime I eat any desserts made with rosewater, my kneejerk instinct is always "this tastes like shampoo".
My nonna had a rose scented bathroom, the soap, the potpourri, everything... I cannot eat rose in anything. I imagine it's similar to the cilantro soap gene but artificially instilled.
Smells also have generational associations. Aldehydic florals—think of that really powdery floral scent, like Chanel No 5—were really hip with your nonna's generation way back when. Now it's thought of as an old lady scent. But fashion is cyclical: aldehydic florals are juuust starting to become edgy and cool again in a retro-chic way.
Oh sure, it was just very specifically rose scent. Strong. Rose Scent.
Folks in Buenos Aires seem to adore menthol candy, there's more of it in most shops I visited than even chocolate. All I get are unfavorable memories of Vicks and cough drops in "adult flavors" as my mom used to put it.
Europeans often think rootbeer tastes like mouthwash or toothpaste because of the wintergreen. And in the Nordic countries, black licorice candy (including but not limited to Finnish salty licorice, known as salmiakki) is super popular and available all over, even though that flavor profile is much rarer and less widely liked in other places like the US.
I knew it was unusual for Europeans to like root beer, but not why. I appreciate the insight.
It's not just candy in Nordic countries, they always want me to try this awesome drink they brought from home and love. I can't stand black licorice.
I was fed a lot of antibiotics, as a kid, that was "red" flavoured. I still can't eat most red candies or maraschino cherries or anything of that nature. Some rare exceptions being red skittles being okay.
Red Triaminic, for me. The orange was okay. The yellow-- I don't know what that flavor that was supposed to be but it was an effort not to throw that up every time.
100% agree. The yellow was nuclear waste flavored.
Could it have been banana? Not today's Cavendish but the older export favorite, Gros Michel?
No, it was breathtakingly awful, and unidentifiable. Chemical. I like @tanglisha's description - it was just aversive, sick-making.
The fancy maraschino cherries taste as much like the cheap ones as grape flavoring tastes like grapes.
I'm not sure I've had fancy ones then, or that I'd be willing to pay good money for something that is potentially not expensive enough to be good
I had a bad experience recently, where I spent $23 buying a small bunch of Shine Muscat and then finding out that's far too little money for good shine muscat. I had paid an insane amount of money for Korean
knock offshine muscat which taste exactly the same as the $3/lb green. Sad face.Sometimes bars will have the fancy ones. They are very dark red instead of bright red.
Will report back if I ever get a free fancy one
So I just went to the farmer's market and was ambushed by the smell of an enormous bunch of fresh basil (like too big to fit in a shopping bag). [Temperatures have dropped into the 40's (°F) at night and it's all being harvested now.] Wasn't planning on cooking today, but it's apparently pesto o'clock once I get the last of my garden in.
Just something I've learned with pesto, if you don't use a mortar and pestle to make the pesto, try chucking the leaves in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to get them to break down a bit! The freezing and thawing pops a lot of cell walls which helps you get the maximum flavor if you're using a food processor or blender.
This is a great tip. I freeze all my "fresh" leafy spices. It's a game-changer.
Ugh, the Subway smell has to be the longest lasting, right? I used to work at Subway for maybe two weeks when I was in high school and ever since then, the smell of their bread is stuck in my nose.
Years later after high school and college and many jobs, I was working another job. There was a Subway near my work in the same shopping center as a Chinese restaurant my manager liked at the time. Once a month or so, my manager would order us all food from this Chinese restaurant for a team lunch. I'd always pick it up because I was the youngest on the team.
Every time I picked up this food, I swear, the moment I'd pull up to the shopping center and open my car's door, I'd smell Subway. I wasn't even going to Subway but because it was in the same shopping center as the restaurant I was going to, Subway's smell overpowered all the other smells in the area. And I know you all may think I'm exaggerating to be funny, but no, this is seriously how powerful the smell of their bread was and it probably still is. I'm just glad I don't find myself near a Subway nowadays.
subway does have a unique smell and it's gotta be more than their natural food processes right? It's something they bake into their plastic signs or spray every hour or something like that right?
In ‘n’ Out Burger. The smell is unmistakable, even driving by on an adjacent freeway with the windows down. I love it.
I worked at McDonald's in high school and a little in college. I used to come home smelling like a mixture of everything, it wasn't awful but it just smelled salty and savory. I remember it was most noticeable when I took a shower after and the hot water created a McDonald's steam smell that was super powerful.
That smell used to make me wander across the street for food even though I didn't want any. It was definitely childhood memories mixed in with "gosh darn it I'm an adult now and I can darn well eat junk food whenever I felt like it".
Several years of poor-to-mid McD experience has successfully re-wired the smell to trigger an avoidance response. I should be safe from them forevermore unless they decide to change the smell. .