Putting on that pot of coffee in the morning, it smells so good you can almost taste it.
Well, actually, you pretty much can.
Our sense of smell is incredibly important to our sense of taste.
Science World said:
"Our sense of smell in responsible for about 80% of what we taste."
"Without our sense of smell, our sense of taste is limited to only five distinct sensations: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and the newly discovered 'umami' or savory sensation."
"All other flavors that we experience come from smell."
However, sometimes those smells are deceiving. There are certain things that just shouldn't be eaten.
Redditor n0_y0urm0m asked:
"What smells way better than it tastes?"
These Redditors tried these already so you don't have to.
That fresh from the dryer smell.
"Clean laundry."
- Akiram
"Came here to say laundry detergent. I've always wanted to eat the powder kind."
- Betty_Jean
Great for baking but not on its own.
"Vanilla extract."
- Mettabox452
"Because it's mostly grain alcohol with a tiny bit of potent beans."
- sameth1
"However! You may enjoy Vanilla bean paste should you want to taste that smell."
- kaikura89
"Surprised cocoa powder hasn't been mentioned yet."
- SirBroccolingtonIII
"Don't make hot chocolate with cocoa powder. Found that out the hard way as a ten year old... it just tasted like disappointment. Adding vanilla extract doesn't help either."
- 8dogsinatrenchcoat
It's meant to smell good, not taste good.
"Candles. Yankee Candles especially. They smell so tasty."
- thedudeisalwayshere
"For the price they run for, they should be edible."
- /FuzzMcBeefy84
"If they were edible, I'd be on My 600lb Life."
- dodexahedron
Ouch.
"Campfires... tastes like burning."
- rickm3
"What about people who drunk Islay Scotch?"
- SculpinIPAlcoholic
"My husband drinks Lagavulin Scotch. Its tastes like buttery campfire. Awful but damn is it smooth."
- plz2meatyu
"I love Lagavulin but my wife thinks it smells like burnt bandaids. And she's not wrong haha."
- jmaca90
Very unexpected.
"My nose. Ha!"
"In the same way my mouth tastes better than it smells."
- adept_ignoramus
"Unexpected dad jokes are the best kind."
- WickedEng90
"Came here for this. Studied sensory science at uni and man, mouths and noses are wild."
- FriedBeeNuts
There's no reason it shouldn't taste good.
"Chapstick, definitely chap stick."
- Simpl3Nik
"Cherry scented chap stick smells soooo good. Then you put it on and lick your lips… nope, what an awful taste!"
- wickedbunny42
"I don't know why but when I put on scent chap stick, I can taste the flavor even though I cant????????????"
- Brilliant_Surprise_3
We all wanted to know.
"Those scented markers from the late 80s early 90s. They smell great, but I can confirm they taste like sh*t."
- snowf*ckerforreal
"The Mr. Sketch ones?"
- xscumfucx
"Yep, those are the ones. I tasted all of them just to be sure. The lies… they tasted nothing like the fruity deliciousness they're masquerading as lol."
- snowf*ckerforreal
Watch where you're working.
"Petrol."
- Punyeah_
"How do you know it doesn't taste good?"
- asdfoneplusone
"It doesn't. It made my tongue numb. Hard lesson on why you don't lay under the fuel line you're undoing."
- KotexAvenger
It's not like breath spray.
"Perfume."
- Definition_Only
"This brought back memories of the time me and my sister sprayed a sh*t ton of perfume into our mouths because we thought it was essentially the same thing as breath freshening spray."
- DevTheDummy
Maybe you were a curious kid and you tried the markers that smelled good or the bottle of vanilla extract.
It's totally normal.
Our sense of smell is important to our safety and in helping us detect what we can or cannot consume. I guess some of these can be pretty tricky if you don't know any better.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
@sherryll/Bluesky
@patricjreynolds/Bluesky
@Wizardynwar/X
@JoeyMannarinoUS/X
@JoeyMannarinoUS/X 
@finneas/Instagram
