Americans Can Smell These Specific Scents That People From Europe Can’t, Says A European Woman
Budimir Jevtic / Shutterstock Italian and Mauritian content creator Yvanna explained in a TikTok that she noticed an interesting difference between herself and her American friends. Apparently, those from the States were more attuned to the scents around them.
When someone says it's beginning to smell like fall, scents like pumpkin spice and apple cinnamon may come to mind. Christmas, on the other hand, likely brings up scents like pine, peppermint, and clove, while spring smells like rain and fresh-cut grass. However, according to Yvanna's TikTok video, this is a uniquely American experience.
A European woman revealed why she thinks Americans can smell scents like fall and fresh cut grass that people from Europe can’t.
"When I first started getting American friends, I noticed that my American friends were smelling more things than I was," she said. "I call it scent culture." She recounted an experience she had when visiting a store with one of her American friends. "We were smelling candles, and before she even read the name of the candle, she smelled it and then said, 'This reminds me of spring cut grass," she recalled. "And I thought to myself, 'What does spring cut grass smell like?'"
"If you asked me if cutting grass had a scent, I would tell you yes, but intellectually I would not know what it was," she continued. "Because even though I remember smelling fresh-cut grass, I did not have an association between smell and grass." She added that the same can be said about the scents associated with times of the year, admitting that she didn't know what Fall smelled like because she only experienced two seasons where she was from.
She recalled her American husband mentioning that he liked a candle that "smelled like fall," and being confused. "Whenever I heard an American say, 'This smells like Christmas,' or 'This smells like summer,' or 'This smells like fall,' I was like, 'What are you talking about," she said. "But it's true."
She acknowledged that certain scents are associated with each of these events; she just couldn't draw the connections herself, which is true for many Europeans. For those outside of America, "it just seems like there's less of a link between the scent of something and the thing."
The European woman is not the only person to notice this cultural difference in how Americans can detect more scents.
Another European TikTok content creator named Josh also posted a video expressing confusion about Americans' ability to smell rain, saying he was "dumbfounded" by the concept. "First off, what are you smelling? What [are] the indications of rain?" he asked. "'Cause I can't get my head around the fact that you can walk outside, smell it, and be like, 'Yeah, smells like rain.'"
The smell of rain actually has a name — petrichor. "That is the smell that rain makes when it hits dry soil," @oyasumisushi on TikTok explained. "But it's not just Americans that can smell it. It's humans in general."
The term was coined by two Australian scientists, and it refers to that deep, earthy scent we know and love. According to science, the smell occurs when a dry period causes plants to secrete oils that build up in the nearby soil. When these oils combine with other chemicals and bacteria, the petrichor scent is released.
Ultimately, it's unclear why Americans seem to be more attuned to scents than people from other countries.
It likely has to do with the fact that smell is so subjective. Unlike your sense of sight or sound, your sense of smell isn't exactly measurable.
DimaBerlin | Shutterstock
As Stanford Medicine Magazine pointed out, there is no universal standard smell test. While sound can be measured in decibels and light in wavelengths, there is no real way to quantify smells.
So maybe this phenomenon has to do with the subjectivity of smells, America's love of scented candles, or the lack of accurate smell descriptors in Western cultures. Or maybe the apparent lack of scent association is only true for a few Europeans on TikTok. Either way, it's certainly an interesting discussion.
Sahlah Syeda is a writer who covers lifestyle, news, psychology, and human interest topics.
