Some while ago Hails, over at Coffee Helps, was mulling over smells. Nice smells. Nasty smells. And it set me thinking about the same. So here are some of my favourite and most detested smells; ten of each.
Nasty Niffs
- Sewers. As you’ll gather from this list I don’t have a “strong” stomach; I’d never have been able to work in the emergency services or medicine.
- Vomit
- Pernod; especially Pernod and blackcurrant. Disgusting!
- Stagnant water
- Unwashed people
- Rubbish bins
- Rotting meat and maggots
- Tobacco smoke
- Wet, humid buses; which I think is related to …
- New cars; that petrol, plastic and leather smell just makes me feel (travel) sick and “heavey”. Actually petrol on it’s own isn’t too wonderful either.
Nice Niffs
- Fresh coffee
- Grapefruit; especially grapefruit aromatherapy oil
- Christmas spices; that wonderful mix of cinnamon, clove, orange, pine etc.
- Church incense
- Wood smoke
- Fresh baking bread
- Lilies
- The sea
- Lavender
- Jasmine
It isn’t really surprising that most people have a fairly common set of abhorred smells as this is a biological design to make us avoid things which are potentially dangerous to health (eg. rotten meat) by making us view them as disgusting. But I’m always surprised at the things which people less commonly dislike — such as Hails’s dislike of lilies, or mine of Pernod. Similarly there are smells which it seems many people love; and here I’m thinking of baking bread (often used by supermarkets as an attractant) and coffee. Again why are some smells so commonly liked; I can see no obvious foundation in biology? What is it that makes us like or dislike something with no obvious basis in biology?
Smell is a surprisingly powerful sense, despite human olfaction being incredibly poor compared with most animals. So, yes, there are smells which bring back specific, pleasurable or not, memories and these will clearly influence our choices. But why the rest of them? As far as I know I have no experiential reason to like jasmine, lilies or wood smoke; nor to dislike Pernod. So why?
And why do some of use have “stronger” stomachs than others? Surely a “strong” stomach should be an evolutionary disadvantage?
What are your most loved and hated smells? And do you know why?