# Smells and/or Tastes that Everyone Loves but You Abhor **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 30, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483 "2016-11-30T19:37:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/41 "2016-12-01T03:44:33Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > Another vote for coffee. I actually like the smell of coffee, but not the taste. Fresh brewed reminds me of waking up at my grandparents’ home on vacation mornings. The taste is truly vile, however. I also like the smell of fresh ground coffee. It makes me wonder, “Hey! What is he grinding there? Oh! It’s only coffee.” ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/42 "2016-12-01T03:45:36Z")
Cheese. Every single one is vile. I can tolerate mozzarella, but that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/43 "2016-12-01T04:15:53Z")
All microwave popcorn. Makes me gag to smell it popping. Cheese varieties can make me barf. But I love the smell of real popcorn. All laundry scents. Won’t wear anything washed, rinsed or dried with a scented product. Once pulled out of a very hot makeout session because her blouse was so goddamn April Fresh. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/44 "2016-12-01T04:21:03Z")
Beets Eggplant Cooked spinach Oysters (never tried them, but I’ve never eaten snot, either) Air fresheners and perfume of any kind Smokers doused in perfume; sorry, you just smell like an ashtray full of cheap perfume ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/45 "2016-12-01T04:47:45Z")
> [@Tara57](#): > > New car smell - ugh, headache and nausea I’ll never have that problem! 😃 But then again, I’ve got some used cars that smell like Open, Un-Cut Ass. So, there’s that, you know. One of my cars seatbelt reeks so badly (The previous owner-dude must have worn it **under** his arm) that the risk of serious injury is preferable to wearing the thing! Plus, it has a million air bags, and I don’t crash, so FUCK IT! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/46 "2016-12-01T06:18:16Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > All microwave popcorn. Makes me gag to smell it popping. Cheese varieties can make me barf. But I love the smell of real popcorn. Indeed, there was a stretch where we had a group who were filling up on microwave popcorn as a way to avoid eating fattening food. It was the persistent scent of the breakroom. Some of us became so weary of it that we started taking our breaks outside. > [@](#): > > All laundry scents. Won’t wear anything washed, rinsed or dried with a scented product. Once pulled out of a very hot makeout session because her blouse was so goddamn April Fresh. Not even scented products. I recall encountering people who used the stuff in the orange box so religiously that that acrid scent of it permeating their clothing was like smelling barf on them. ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/47 "2016-12-01T06:47:11Z")
Lemon, pine, and lavender. _shudders_ ---
**Author:** ![Dorabella](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@Dorabella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorabella)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/48 "2016-12-01T07:03:10Z")
Mangoes. I hate the smell and no way could I eat one. I don’t like over-ripe bananas either. Most other things though, I am fine with. ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/49 "2016-12-01T12:03:34Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Cheese. Every single one is vile. I can tolerate mozzarella, but that’s it. If you’re open to an experiment, you might try a cheese called “Colby”. It’s got a taste that is entirely its own and it is uncommon enough that you may not have been exposed. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/50 "2016-12-01T12:45:34Z")
Babies. People seem to think they smell great, but I don’t get it. Their body odor is a combination of sour milk, vomit, and feces; something a parent must tolerate. But I see people (usually women) shoving their nose into a baby to savor the aroma. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/51 "2016-12-01T13:17:11Z")
Burning leaves. It smells like nasty air pollution to me. Because it is. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/52 "2016-12-01T14:21:00Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Cheese. Every single one is vile. I can tolerate mozzarella, but that’s it. Exactly what I came here to say. And restaurants want to put it on everything. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/53 "2016-12-01T14:57:16Z")
Any type of shellfish whatsoever. They taste like they’ve been sitting outside in the sun for a week. A co-worker once brought a pasta salad to work. I asked her “Is there any meat in this?” She assured me there wasn’t. I took one bite, spit it out and said “There’s shellfish in this.” She replied “Oh, you can’t taste the little bit of crabmeat in it.” Yes, I can. BLEECH! ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/54 "2016-12-01T16:17:24Z")
I’ll second baby stank. The only time a baby smells good is in the 1-picosecond window between the baby being freshly bathed, powdered, and dressed in fresh clothes and diaper, and something noxious being expelled from one end or the other. I hate the smell of lavender, and ocean smell. It smells like humidity and rotten fish. Stinky cheeses. Shellfish of any sort. They’re either giant boiled bugs or giant loogies, and smell just about as appetizing. Melons except for watermelon. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/55 "2016-12-01T16:21:17Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-XMas] A co-worker once brought a pasta salad to work. I asked her “Is there any meat in this?” She assured me there wasn’t. I took one bite, spit it out and said “There’s shellfish in this.” She replied “Oh, you can’t taste the little bit of crabmeat in it.” Yes, I can. BLEECH! [/quote] ^^^ Bleach, definitely. Most unpleasant taste! 😛 For me, strawberries. It’s not that I find them horribly revolting, but I don’t care for them, smell _or_ taste, and a very large majority of people seem to find them so delicious that this is incomprehensible to them. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/56 "2016-12-01T17:04:24Z")
Garlic powder. I know people who dump it in everything to make it “spicy”. And it’s overpowering in every single flavored snack chip, no matter what the supposed flavoring is. Even in small amounts, I find it tongue-scorching and taints the taste of anything else for hours. Based on observations of the people who love stuff with garlic powder in it, I think they _have_ no real sense of taste, so that they think actually tasting something so pungently awful is a novelty. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/57 "2016-12-01T17:37:29Z")
I can’t abide the taste of tomato. As an ingredient, like in pizza sauce or chili base, I can eat it but even then there cannot be any chunks. Being from the South where, in the spring/summer/early fall “tomato sammiches” occupy a place somewhere between religion, family and football on the “list of things to fight for and die over”, it makes me something of a pariah. People often ask me how I can not like tomatoes but eat pizza sauce. I answer that I eat biscuits, as well, but don’t eat shortening right from the can nor drink buttermilk from a glass (both are ingredients in most southern biscuits, for those not in the culinary know 😛 ) ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/58 "2016-12-01T17:53:13Z")
I seem to be the only person I know who hates the smell of fresh rain on the road. It smells dirty and dusty to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/59 "2016-12-01T18:12:06Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Play-Doh. I have no idea what it tastes like, but the smell is disgusting. Just a whiff of it sends me into a panic. > > I don’t know, perhaps there was some unfortunate Play-Doh incident when I was a kid that I’ve repressed. But I can barely stand to even be in the same room with Play-Doh. > > This is a problem, because I have a three-year-old. Oh God, yes. The smell of Play-Doh makes me want to gag. I have a five-year-old niece who loves the stuff. Ugh. Lavender is the other smell I can’t stand. I don’t know what it is, too strong, too perfume-y, too something. Some people must like it, I see it lots of places- lavender fabric softener, lavender candles, and some people even cook with the vile stuff. I can’t imagine eating something that tastes like lavender smells. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483/60 "2016-12-01T18:30:10Z")
I find clove and star anise unpalatable. Caraway only slightly less so. I’m okay with fennel though. Especially when roasted or sauted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smells-and-or-tastes-that-everyone-loves-but-you-abhor/773483.md?page=4)