Across the street from my warehouse is a Mike Sells potato chip plant.
At the other end of the block is a Krispy Kreme bakery (commercial, not a retail outlet unfortunately).
Around the corner, to the south, is a Sensient fragrance and flavorings factory.
And less than a mile due west is an airport.
At any given time on most days I can tell which way the wind is blowing from the smell in the air. It’s either peanut oil frying, the sweet yeasty smell of doughnuts (and often of razzberry jam), the biting sting of jet fuel burning or whatever abomination the flavoring factory is producing (often Listerine or Browning Agent [re: burnt butter], but sometimes chicken or something like doublemint gum. I’ve been told they do a lot of root beer there but have not identified it specifically).
When I arrived this morning I was greeted with the wafting aroma of…
Skunk.
Someone either annoyed a pole cat or more likely ran one down on the interstate.
Usually when I get tired of the smell of corrugated boxes, hot melt adhesive and warehouse dust I can step outside and enjoy the aroma of the neighborhood. I think I’ll stay inside today though, at least until the wind picks up.
So, what interesting smells permiate your portion of the planet?
I work near a McCormick spice plant. Everyday I’m treated to a new smell, some days it is buttery, other days are peppery, and in the fall we will get a nice whiff pumpkin pie spice.
I went to school in the town where the Schwartz Spice factory was. On some days the whole town would smell of curry.
Interesting spice facts*: the saffron was delivered in an armored Securicor van. When people had to clean out the grinder after the nutmeg had been in there, they got the rest of the day off because they were tripping.
And living in Dublin brought the smell of hops and Guinness on a regular basis too. Nice smell.
My town is home to a processing plant that burns a LOT of soybeans. I think it’s a biofuel plant or something. Whatever, on a still day the whole town smells like stale farts.
The Blommer Chocolate Factory was only a few blocks from where I used to work in Chicago. For years I was going nuts trying to figure out where the smell of hot chocolate was coming from when I walked to work from the train station.
We live near a bread factory. Sometimes you can tell juuuust when they’re taking them out of the oven.
I grew up in a suburb of Akron, Ohio, Rubber Capital of the World, also home of Quaker Oats. They’d roast those oats and it smelled so good. Then the wind would change and you’d get a face full of rubber.
I lived in Italian Village in Columbus OH and there was a Wonder Bread factory nearby. But they didn’t make bread, they made cinnamon rolls. So people would come see me thinking it was a scary part of town and then they’d smell the cinnamon rolls. MMMMM.
The first is pretty easy to believe, saffron is horrendously expensive. The second is a little more questionable. IIRC it takes a lot of nutmeg for one to actually get off on it. But with that said, I imagine a commercial spice grinder would have a lot of nutmet available, and I would think that the grinding would smoosh it down to a concentrated and skin/sinus permiating powder. So questionable but not unbelievable, I can imagine the smell of pounds and pounds of ground nutmeg.
I used to live south of a papermill. Luckily the prevailings winds were generally from the southwest so it wasn’t an issue. But, occasionally would get a wind from the north.
How did Tyler Durden put it?
The fart smell of steam and the hamster cage smell of wood chips. Sadly enough not only did I get used to the smell, I actually got to where I liked it.
On rare days, when the wind is just right, one can smell the ocean at my office in downtown Fort Myers. But in the late winter and early spring it’s just smoke from all the brush fires in the everglades.
Missed the opportunity to note that many of the best stories, regardless of veracity, are shared over a cold one (in reference to the bloke at the pub).
Also missed the opportunity to say thanks all, these are wonderfull smells.
There’s a Bushell’s coffee factory in the inner west Sydney suburb of Concord. It smells great anyway - but they generate a lot of husks and other spent detritus of the coffee making process, and they offered it to the local council for free to use as mulch on the flower beds of the local parks. Fantastic! A lovely coffee smell when you go to the park.
But the local killjoys complained and had it stopped.
