Myths of Smelling Coffee Beans to Reset Your Sense of Smell

Written by:Chaitanya Nimmala.

When you first wake up and you smell the coffee's aroma, without even taking a sip, it perks up your brain. A recent study suggests that it might be sufficient to set a timer for your coffee maker to wake you up in the morning. Although most people drink coffee for its flavor, there are benefits to its scent as well. Even the fragrance of coffee seems to encourage your brain to work productively.

Being able to comprehend and control these scents in order to deliver the customer a one-of-a-kind experience that they will remember is part of mastering the art of perfumery. As I was developing this ability, I discovered a myth that I would want to dispel. 


Smell coffee beans first, then another fragrance, as this helps your nose's olfactory capabilities reset between scents.


I have no doubt that we have all heard about this myth, and many of us have even been provided coffee beans to smell in a little bowl when we were trying on perfumes. According to a myth, the aroma of coffee helps us avoid olfactory fatigue, which is a condition in which our sense of smell is impaired as a result of prolonged exposure. Interestingly, there is no scientific evidence to support one of the most prevalent fallacies in the perfumery industry.


Perfumers and fragrance specialists often employ the smell of coffee beans to help clear the palate and prime the nose for smelling several smells. This method is helpful in identifying and assessing different perfumes, and it's especially helpful in a perfume shop when clients are trying on different smells.


When someone samples multiple colognes or scents at once, they may get nasal fatigue. When your nasal receptors become less sensitive to specific sounds over time, it might become difficult to distinguish across samples, which is known as nasal weariness. As a result, sniffing coffee in between distinct odors may "clean" your nasal receptors and restore your sense of smell.

Strong, distinct scents from coffee beans can effectively block out other scents and neutralize olfactory receptors, improving the nose's ability to discriminate between fragrances. The potent scent of coffee beans aids in nasal clearing and primes the nose for the subsequent aroma. Customers can enjoy a more delightful scent-testing experience and a more accurate appraisal of the fragrance as a result.


Furthermore, coffee beans have a certain quality that makes them useful for enhancing perfume scents. Many perfumes' inherent scents can be complemented and enhanced by the smokey and woody tones found in coffee beans, giving them a more nuanced and alluring appearance.


To prevent the issue of olfactory fatigue, switch up the perfumes you are using. Make a change by adding coffee beans. Simply sniff each fragrance according to its family, such as "fruity," "floral," or "citrus," to avoid having to choose between two different scents or to avoid being tired of your nose. Try citrus smells before gourmand, or begin with Fougere scents and work your way up to fruity perfumes. Additionally, your nose will thank you for enhancing your


Coffee beans are also used by perfumers and scent specialists to help isolate and identify particular notes in a fragrance. We call this "note detection." In order to distinguish the various notes in the fragrance and comprehend how they interact with one another, they will sniff the coffee beans both before and after they smell the scent.


Smelling coffee beans is a common practice in perfume shops; it helps to enhance the aroma of perfumes, neutralize olfactory receptors and refresh the sense of smell, clear the olfactory palate and prepare the nose for smelling multiple scents, and identify and isolate specific notes in a fragrance. This makes scent testing more pleasurable and enables a more accurate assessment of the fragrance.



Strong smells have the ability to quickly overpower the sense of smell, which is quite strong. The nose can grow weary and unable to discriminate between scents when attempting to examine several scents. This is referred described as "olfactory fatigue" or "nose blindness." The scent of coffee beans helps to revive the sense of smell and balance the olfactory receptors.


Within a given amount of time, your olfactory glands can normalize any smell to which they are exposed. For this reason, the smell of your room may alter when you live there compared to when you return from a week-long trip to an unoccupied room.


Your olfactory glands adjust to any perfume or aroma you may be wearing as a result of sensory adaptation. This explains why, despite your best efforts to smell good, other people can't stop complimenting you on your scent. Through distinction, sensory adaptation also aids in the recognition of novel scents.


Smelling coffee beans is a common practice in perfume shops; it helps to enhance the aroma of perfumes, neutralize olfactory receptors and refresh the sense of smell, clear the olfactory palate and prepare the nose for smelling multiple scents, and identify and isolate specific notes in a fragrance. Customers can now have a more pleasurable scent-testing experience and a more accurate appraisal of the fragrance.