I thought I’d written about the relationship between the odor of coffee and the scent of skunk spray before, but a search of this blog turns up nothing. Perhaps I wrote about the link on another blog. Regardless, I’m writing about it now.
Occasionally, while my wife and I are out for a drive, we’ll smell the unmistakable odor of a skunk’s spray. About fifty percent of the time that happens, perhaps even more, my mind instantly associates that odor with the aroma of coffee. My wife detects no connection whatsoever between the odors.
Some time ago, and again this morning, I came across a question posed in an online forum by a person who shares my association between the two odors; he asked whether there was a chemical similarity between the two because, he said, “sometime they smell alike.” A discussion of the phenomenon followed, including the reason for the similarity; skunk spray and the scent of coffee are related, chemically. According to one of the participants in the online discussions, the chemical compound n-butyl mercaptan is present in very high concentrations in skunk spray, imparting the characteristic stench. The same person said
two mercaptans are found in coffee, methyl mercaptan and furfuryl mercaptan, also called 2-(mercaptomethyl) furan. The fragrance industry uses the latter compound, she said, to recreate the aroma of roasted coffee. Another online forum discussed the relationship between skunk spray and coffee, claiming thiols, also known as mercaptans, to be responsible for skunk odors.
Having been duped before by internet “experts,” I decided to continue to explore the matter, hoping to find more concrete evidence that of the relationship between the fragrances. This morning, I came across something I found intriguing in an article entitled “Beating the High Price of Coffee,” from the July 1954 issue of Changing Times, The Kiplinger Magazine:
“A New York Company, Cargille Scientific, Inc., makes a synthetic mercaptan, which it sells for $105 a pound. It is powerful stuff, having to be kept under double seal because in concentrated form it gives the impression that there has been an explosion involving a skunk about the size of an A-bomb.”
From there, I thrashed about in the weeds of highly technical fragrance industry technical literature, coming upon a word with which I was unfamiliar, pudeur. The word, which one online dictionary defines as “modesty, especially in sexual matters” (but others do not even acknowledge as a word), in the perfume industry means, according to one blogger, “the desirable smell of sex and things a touch unclean.”
From there, I trudged through more technical literature, getting lost and confused in the process. I read that, in the fragrance industry, some of the most successful perfumes combine attractive and repellent scents to create ambivalent colognes that suggest both excitement and danger. In the U.S., the industry is regulated by the FDA, but because many of the ingredients in perfumes and colognes are claimed as trade secrets, the industry is not required to disclose them to the public. Essentially, the industry self-regulates by using ingredients that are classified as GRAS, or “generally regarded as safe.”
The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials is an industry group formed in 1966, according to its website, “to gather and analyze scientific data, engage in testing and evaluation, distribute information, cooperate with official agencies and to encourage uniform safety standards related to the use of fragrance ingredients.” I did not find any reference to mercaptan or skunk scent in the organization’s website, so I guess I’m out of luck getting hold of polecat perfume. Although, if I dab a little coffee on my neck, perhaps I could evoke that sweet scent.
And there, my friends, is where my early morning wanderings took me today. Between then and now, I’ve had several cups of coffee and sat down with my wife to enjoy a breakfast of poached eggs and Canadian bacon. Soon, I’ll shower and shave and get ready for my 10:15 appointment with a cardiologist. I haven’t seen a cardiologist in about three years, so I think it’s about time to get a check-up to ensure that all’s well with the perfusive pump.
