Club circle
Exercises to train your nose, find words for what you smell and compare your attempts with others.
The Learning to Smell circle brings together members who want to train their nose. Post simple exercises here: smelling two citrus fruits side by side, describing a spice from your kitchen, guessing a material on a blotter, noting what changes after a few minutes. Everyone shares their words and their doubts, and others answer with their own. The Classes on training your nose and fragrance vocabulary lay the groundwork; here, you practice together.
30 posts · 19 active members
orla.citrusin Learning to Smell · Belfast ·
QuestionWhen I say something smells clean, what am I smelling? Is it the musk or the citrus?
ingrid_berlin Usually the musk, I think. Clean musk is quiet and close, like a room with good acoustics. I wear it since ten years.
priya.cardamomin Learning to Smell · Toronto ·
Challenge
Thread of the week: the spice cupboard, smelled blind. Toronto has turned cold and the chai pot hasn't left the stove, so this one felt right. 1) Ask someone to pick five jars without showing you the labels. 2) Lids off, one at a time, a few centimetres from…
dex_in_brooklyn cumin got me. i said sweaty gym bag and my roommate nearly 86'd me from the kitchen. your going to laugh, i cook with it every night
nell.wattlein Learning to Smell · Melbourne ·
ReadingOkay, nerd moment: I finally read the Wikipedia article on the sense of smell properly. Smell molecules bind to receptors on nerve cells in the lining of the nose, the signal passes through the olfactory bulb, and from there it reaches the parts of the brain…
aroha.rainin Learning to Smell · Wellington ·
Exercise
Kia ora, did the odd one out with my flatmate: three cups, two of the same black tea, one green. Took me three goes. It's harder when you know there's a trick
joon.yuzu Tea is great for this. Try two greens and a jasmine next. Basically same base, one twist.
juniper_julesin Learning to Smell · Portland ·
Scent diaryStudio notes: I've kept a glaze book for years, every test tile with its recipe and how it came out of the kiln. Since the rain came back I've been doing the same with smells. One page each: what it is, where I smelled it, three words, and what it reminded me…
joon.yuzu Same idea, in a spreadsheet. Columns: material, family, three words, surprise. Your page, with filters.
aroha.rainin Learning to Smell · Wellington ·
Snapshot
Kia ora, spring sun and a kawakawa bush by the terminal. Whole leaf, nothing. Torn leaf, peppery and green, like its been waiting for someone to ask.
mel_from_adelaidein Learning to Smell · Adelaide ·
Discovery
At the cellar door we say blackcurrant leaf for some reds. Smelled blackcurrant bud on a strip at a workshop and it's the same thing, only louder.
hamish_heather Half the words folk who come in use for whisky would work on a strip. Peat, wet rope, toffee. They loose the thread when the glass is empty, mind.
nell.wattlein Learning to Smell · Melbourne ·
Memory
Okay, nerd moment: I walked past my old primary school this arvo, just after a shower, and the gum trees by the gate had been rained on. Instantly eight years old: chalk dust, wet school bags, eucalyptus. So I went looking for why. A review by Rachel Herz on…
aroha.rain Kia ora, for me it's the school swimming pool. Instant
aoife_mintin Learning to Smell · Cork ·
TipTwo things from the Class on smelling strips and nose fatigue that changed my sessions. A study there found one natural sniff tells you as much about whether a smell is there, and how strong, as seven or more. And the blind exercise has you take three breaths…
joon.yuzu TL;DR: fewer sniffs, better notes. I was hyperventilating over ramekins. That's my two cents.
fern.mossin Learning to Smell · Swansea ·
Discovery
Read about steam distillation on a wet lunch break: steam carries the scent out of the leaves, and once it condenses the oil separates from the water. The watery part is called the hydrosol, a word I'd never seen before.
nell.wattle The same page says eucalyptus oil is actually made this way on an industrial scale. Every rainy walk here makes more sense now.
ash.and.emberin Learning to Smell · Calgary ·
Exercise
Tried the spearmint and caraway pair from the club's Class on training your nose . Same atoms, mirror images, and one smells like gum and the other like rye bread. My brain still hasn't caught up.
aoife_mint Spearmint is my favourite thing to smell and I never knew it had a twin. Doing this tonight. There's a page on mint in the Notes too.
joon.yuzuin Learning to Smell · Seattle ·
ReadingTL;DR: training your nose does seem to work, with caveats. Read this on the bus: an open-access meta-analysis on olfactory training that pools 36 studies. What it found: - training improved overall smell function - the biggest gains were in identifying…
ingrid_berlin Identification first. That is the part we practise here.
dex_in_brooklynin Learning to Smell · New York ·
Discovery
ok so we got ceylon cinnamon in at work next to the usual cassia. side by side at my station the cassia is sweeter, almost like a cookie, the ceylon is lighter and kind of citrusy. your telling me these are both just cinnamon?
nell.wattle The Wikipedia page on coumarin lists cassia cinnamon as one of the places it's found, along with tonka beans and sweet woodruff, and describes it as…
nell.wattlein Learning to Smell · Melbourne ·
Scent diary
Okay, nerd moment: the brown boronia is flowering in the front garden and I've been trying to write it down for you northern lot. Up close: apricot jam, a bit of black tea, something like violets. A step back: lemon rind. From the gate: nothing at all, which…
dex_in_brooklynin Learning to Smell · New York ·
Questionok so i can't remember half the specials from last month but i remember every bad fish delivery since i started. you're telling me the nose keeps receipts?
nell.wattle Okay, nerd moment: in a study from the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center , 25 adults learned unfamiliar smells linked to places in a scene, and one…
dex_in_brooklynin Learning to Smell · New York ·
Memory
ok so first week on the line the pastry cook made me split a real vanilla pod and smell it next to a bottle of imitation vanilla from the baking aisle. the pod was boozy and smoky, the bottle was just sweet. your never the same after
nell.wattle The Wikipedia page on vanillin says it's the main flavour compound of vanilla, and that most synthetic vanillin today is made from guaiacol, a…