What Do You Do When Pleasant Aromas Go Bad?

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Losing your ability to smell is a big deal, as those who suffered from anosmia due to COVID know full well. Fortunately for nearly all, the sense returned and once again they could enjoy the aroma of coffee.

Or maybe not.

Take this little quiz.

Question: What do slaughterhouses, bone distilleries, and sulfuric-acid makers have in common?

Answer: The New York City Department of Environmental Protection lists them amongst 32 sources of odiferous contamination, according to the Chicago Tribune. The agency prohibits “the emission of odorous air contaminant . . . if the air contaminant . . . may cause detriment to the health, safety, welfare or comfort of any person.”

Although commercial coffee roasters aren’t listed, one in Brooklyn has been fined several times by the DEP for befouling the air.

Odors are a major component in the taste of food, so it is no surprise that coffee drinkers’ choices are often led by the smell. Aromatic components, researchers find, are particularly important in coffee beverages as they are the main constituents of the sensory experience of coffee drinkers.

Why then have neighbors of Gillies Coffee Roaster in Brooklyn complained to the DEP about the smell from the facility?

Like much else, there can be too much of a good thing. What is pleasant in small batches isn’t so pleasant when overdone; what smells good in the kitchen is noxious on an industrial scale. The DEP says that it has also cited doughnut and pickle manufacturers.

“The law does not distinguish between what some people find pleasant and some people might find unpleasant,” a DEP representative said, according to the New York Times. “Regardless of what the smell is, the law says you have a right not to live with other people’s smells.”

If the smell of coffee is offensive enough to result in a fine, can the same be said about cooking aromas, such as pasta sauce and fish? Yes, said the Italian high court fining a couple around $2,000. This time the source was a home kitchen in a village near the Adriatic. The scent was so potent the judges determined it was “beyond the limits of tolerability” and constituted “olfactory molestation.”

Americans love their coffee, but enough already. Italians love their fish and sauce, but there are limits.

And there’s the problem: What are the limits? It is difficult to draw the line when it comes to otherwise pleasant aromas. Should the offensiveness of an odor be determined by one person?

Does it matter whether the person is a crank or has an allergy? I had a friend who moved because her apartment smelled of her downstairs neighbor’s curry. Was her reaction ethnocentric or that of a reasonable person wherever their country of origin?

I can’t stand the scent of a popular perfume. Do I complain? I choose to keep my distance whenever possible and when it isn’t, I chalk it up to bad luck.

I want my house to smell of coffee. There are other smells, however, which no one likes, Not only are they unpleasant, but they are also hazardous to your health. Who wants their house to smell of gasoline fumes?

Still, gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers are as common as grass. I can’t walk in my suburban neighborhood without encountering homeowners or landscapers befouling the air. I need to close the windows in my house when around me grass is being cut and blown into piles.

As a good neighbor, I don’t want to be a curmudgeon and spoil the amity that exists amongst us. But as a good citizen, I want reasonable regulations to assist me so I can enjoy my life without, as the Italian court ruled, olfactory molestation. Sometimes an anonymous complaint is better than a face-to-face discussion.