Great smells that gladden your heart.

[Bored Of Education]

We have done a great smells of sport but not elsewhere I don't think. Smell is possibly the most evocative sense, I think, and can involuntarily make you feel glad. I have just walked past a derelict site on our main road which is covered in buddleia which, at this time of night, smells wonderful and never fails to cheer me up.

See also:
Petrichor
Indian restaurants
Garlic cooking
2 star petrol (reminds me of Havana where every vehicle runs on it)
Chip shop chips.
A freshly lit fag - especially a roll-up - only for a couple of seconds and far enough away that I don't get the smoke.
Cigars -unlit and lit and I don't mind the smoke.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

The local McVities factory when they are doing Hob Nobs - I can smell it from my house at times.

Mind I used to work there and it didn't always smell great inside, and I walked past it earlier thinking it must be a hell hole in there tonight.

[Patrick Thistle]

Thee's a bakery in the next street. When they are cooking cakes and pastries late at night it smells delicious.

[Patrick Thistle]

Chip shop chips is a good call from Bored. But technically isn't it the smell of hot salt and vinegar on chips?

[Toby Gymshorts]

None whatsoever. Stupid premise for a thread.

[Greenlander]

Creosote and tarmac.

[Bored Of Education]

Oh, yes, of course, I love that smell.

The biscuit factory reminds me that I love the smell of hops from breweries. I used to go to school downwind from the Stag brewery in Mortlake and, in the summer, the smell of hops was wonderful.

I also love the small of metal being worked such as in a car workshop or some such. There is a company that makes machine tools on the walk to Twerton Park and the smell form there is lovely as well. I think it reminds me of the factory where my Grampy was the manager which did metal tubing.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Beer brewing, Coffee brewing, bread baking, Steam engines, and another vote for hot tar.

[ursus arctos]

I'm not sure how 2 Star petrol smells differently from petrol with more (or fewer) stars, but I have always had a soft spot for the smell of petrol, as did my mother, who attributed that to the fact that her father spent much of her childhood working in a garage in Hell's Kitchen.

Seconding bakeries (the Silvercup Bakery at the Queens end of the 59th Street Bridge being a particular favourite) coffee (though roasting more than brewing, cf. the Hills Bros. facility on the Embarcadero in SF) and garlic being sauteed.

Also fresh cut grass, notwithstanding its impact on my allergies.

[ursus arctos]

I don't particularly like the smell of coal fires on an overcast winter's day, but will always find them to be extremely evocative.

[San Bernardhinault]

Like others, petrichor, tar, beer brewing, bread baking (obviously), roasting coffee.

I'll add aeroplane fuel, the smell of which is not only evocative of old airports which don't have good air conditioning and leaky refueling hoses, but which I actually like

That musty odour of vineyards fermenting

The wild dill, which you sometime pass around these parts which makes it smell like you're passing a pickle factory

Butter in the frying pan

Pine needles and trees on hot days

[Nocturnal Submission]

I must say that I hate the smell of tar, hops brewing (always smelt like a cheese & tomato flan burning in the oven) and a few others upthread but it's always fascinating to see what people choose.

I'm definitely on board with the smells emanating from Indian restaurants, petrichor and flavoured coffees in shopping malls.

Most of mine relate to holidays. Petrol (filling up the car/motor caravan on trips to the seaside or my gran's cottage), the seaweed/ozone smell on a sea breeze, the Calor gas cooking ring in the motor caravan being fired up for dinner (that's a biggie) and the delicious evening food smells from restaurants in Mediterranean towns.

Then there's the smell of newly-mown grass, which reminds me of summer exams and sets off (nice) butterflies in my stomach and bonfire smoke in the early autumn, which ties in with the return to school and college.

The smell of a speedway track - a huge part of my childhood. Sharpened pencils. Butterscotch tarts in school dinners

But my all-time favourite smell is breakfast being cooked over an open range by my gran in her aforementioned cottage. I think poached eggs were a main part of it. Poached eggs on toast.

[JVL]

The smell of coffee roasting whenever the Nestles factory in Hayes was making Nescafe: that brings back a lot of childhood memories.

The smell of baking bread is always a winner and guaranteed to brighten up my mood.

The smell of Wintergreen, or related liniments: always find it refreshing, even when fishing rogue toenails out of the players' baths after a Sunday League cup final at Church Road.

[Sits]

Many of the above, plus some of our garden herbs when you brush against them. In particular mint and Thai basil.

[Satchmo Distel]

Incense
Turkish black tea (right now)
Chips and mushy peas (or pie and peas)

[Femme Folle]

Bored, you don't fool me. You only started this thread so you could use the word 'petrichor'.

Don't get me wrong, it is a good smell (unless you live in New Jersey, then it might not be, depending on the day).

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

I'll add aeroplane fuel, the smell of which is not only evocative of old airports which don't have good air conditioning and leaky refueling hoses, but which I actually like

It gets to you after a while - working in an area where you're exposed to it for eight hours a day can cause health issues - I used to get terrible headaches. There is also evidence to suggest that prolonged exposure to aviation fuel increases the risk of certain cancers.

To continue the fuel theme, for me nothing beats the great smell of a box of freshly opened firelighters. My parents had to hide them from me when I was very young, to stop me from eating them.

[Felicity, I guess so]

I’m very susceptible to strong smells- I got blinding headaches a couple of times as a kid on walks through vigorously flowering whins/gorse; I can ‘taste/feel on my lips’ when people on the metro have overdone the aftershave/perfume and I detect smells much quicker than Ms F, despite years of smoking.

Not a fan of perfume, scented soap, deodorant, air ‘fresheners’ but most food cooking/baking/roasting smells and pine forests, hot vegetation.

The smell/memory thing is powerful- we lived near the Banks’ brewery in Wolverhampton so smelling any brewery literally evokes Chapel Ash and the walk into town. Coal fires on a damp day and I’m straight back to council estates in 70s Scotland.

[Simon G]

The biscuit factory reminds me that I love the smell of hops from breweries. I used to go to school downwind from the Stag brewery in Mortlake and, in the summer, the smell of hops was wonderful.

Jesus, that takes me back. I remember going shopping in Cheltenham with my nan as a kid and the smell of the Whitbread Flowers brewery behind Tesco was something else. It closed in 1998 so I've not smelt it since.

Stick me down also as another who loves the smell of a good chippy.

Another one I don't smell anymore, pipe smoke at Whaddon Road in the Wymans Road terrace.

[Jah Womble]

Coffee
Those caramelised nuts sold on Oxford Street
Oil paints
Pears soap
Creosote
Soot
Those freshener things you put in the toilet

[Nocturnal Submission]

Coffee
Those caramelised nuts sold on Oxford Street
Oil paints
Pears soap
Creosote
Soot
Those freshener things you put in the toilet

Some good ones there, Jah, particularly the nuts.

Pears soap and soot are just neutral memories of childhood for me but Imperial Leather again takes me back to my gran's cottage.

[andrew7610]

A jar of Marmite when you open it for the first time.

[Simon G]

I've just remembered another one - the burger van at a market/fete/fair. We have the Mop Fair in Tewkesbury and the only reason I go is to grab a "dirty" burger.

[blameless]

I'm onboard with petrichor, and also a coal fire while it's getting going (reminds me of my gran's house). Both pale however compared to an open-air doughnut stand while they're cooking the doughnuts.

At the other end of the spectrum, strong coffee or brewery smells give me the boak.

[diggedy derek]

Sheds.

The inside of a box of tea.