Coffee as a fragrance

John_Yossarian

I know this might sound a bit weird but I believe someone else might have thought of the same thing.

Has anyone ever sniffed a cup of coffee after the coffee traces had dried up? I leave the cups on my desk and sometimes they stay there for hours on a busy day. In the evening I would sniff the cup and I am always amazed by how nicely it smells, sweet, chocolaty, etc. I was even inclined on doing an experiment to see whether a bad coffee shot would have a more bitter smell, this way one can figure out whether the bitterness is due to the more oily stuff (which most likely is the case) or the more volatile components (which in my book are the goodies). If the former the smell would reflect the presence of oily material that doesn’t evaporate quickly.
I have even gone that far wondering why the big perfume houses, e.g. Givaudan, Firminich, IFF, etc have not looked at this. Tobacco is widely used in Home fragrances but not coffee. I find this unfair 🙂

It would be interesting to know what the fellow coffee connoisseurs think about this.

DavecUK

John_Yossarian Has anyone ever sniffed a cup of coffee after the coffee traces had dried up? I leave the cups on my desk and sometimes they stay there for hours on a busy day. In the evening I would sniff the cup and I am always amazed by how nicely it smells, sweet, chocolaty, etc.

Absolutely yes, and often noticed a very pleasant smell like you.

I actually have an air freshener with a coffee element to it 🤣

gotters

I had a bottle of shower gel, quite pricey, called Wash With Joe (no thanks). It was coffee mint. My problem with it was that whilst I love the smell of coffee, it’s not a smell I associate with clean or personal hygiene (like say mint, lemon etc). Coffee is a lovely smell but, much like petrol or fresh tarmac, I don’t want to stink of it.

A candle with a nice coffee smell would be lovely as doesn’t fall foul of making me smell of it.

John_Yossarian

gotters I agree that coffee smell on its own could be a bit too much, but as a part of the rest might be an interesting concept, like tobacco.

John_Yossarian

DavecUK Hi Dave, P&G had good marketing guys indeed 😄

DavecUK

John_Yossarian Hi Dave, P&G had good marketing guys indeed 😄

It’s great, I think I have had it for 10 years now….same can 🤣 I use it as a kitchen bin freshener

LMSC

John_Yossarian You are not alone. I not only sniff it every time but also taste the left overs. I often find the left-over cold coffee tasted better than it was hotter. 😊

Pompeyexile

You are right, the smell of coffee is like the smell of frying bacon, enticing, entoxicating and it makes the nostrils flare and the taste buds tingle in anticipation. But, would I like to dab a bit under me pits?….The bacon, only if I want to be chased by every dog in the neighbourhood. The coffee, only if it would entice some beautiful, dusky maiden from Brazil to want to get to know me, as opposed to sewer flies that are attracted to spent coffee grounds.

John_Yossarian

IntoxNitram This is very interesting.
Pompeyexile mentioned “fried bacon” but I did not mean the smell of roasted coffee but that of once extracted and dried up on the bottom of the cup.

The extracted fragrance is what I find very pleasant. I personally never liked the smell of roasted coffee beans.

IntoxNitram

Another one of my passions cropping up haha. I have a fair amount of fragrances which I like to collect. Coffee is actually a fairly common note within the fragrance community. For example, Black Opium lists coffee as a note.

Meldrew

We bought these from Lidl, they have a slight coffee taste but a strong coffee aroma.

DavecUK

Meldrew I’m always suspicious of Lidl, what’s the ingredients list say? 🤔

Meldrew

DavecUK Not sure how healthy they are but the wife likes them.

DavecUK

Meldrew Well according to UK law, and thier description, they seem to have real coffee flavour in them!