Boozin’ Blog

For a few months, I lived in a small apartment in Kansas City. It was a quiet neighborhood not far from the business district. I worked in the suburbs and when I left for work in the morning, the air was heavy with the smell of coffee. This wasn’t your typical “cuppa Joe before I go” smell of morning coffee, this was a grab you by the lapel, throw 8 ounces of espresso in your face and slap you around a few times sort of smell. I liked it.

Eventually I learned that a big, corporate roaster was just a couple of blocks away - Folgers or someone like that. To this day when I pick up an especially strong whiff of coffee I get an immediate sense memory of those strange few months I spent in my little apartment in KC.

Here’s another: These days I don’t live too far from St. Louis, MO. Whenever I drive into the city, I pass the Anheuser-Busch Inbev brewery in I-55. Most times, I pass they are brewing and that wonderful smell of cooking malt fills the car. I don’t drink a lot of ABI product but I sure love the smell of their brewery. It’s a smell of place for me and anytime I pick up the scent, regardless of where I am, I think I’m driving past the brewery for just a moment.

I’m sure you have your own similar scent triggers.

So, I find this story particularly odd. The North British Distillery in Edinburgh, Scotland has reached an agreement with the environmental group Sepa to suppress its smell.

By all accounts, it’s a pleasant smell, not unlike the aroma of a brewery, I’d imagine, and the local city councilman doesn’t have any memory of complaints. In fact, it seems that the area has had the smell hanging around for well over a hundred years and the residents have come to associate it with home.

Nevertheless, the distillery is installing a special chimney designed kill the smell. There is no mention in the article of what specific environmental problems this will solve so the whole thing it just kind of puzzling.

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