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An Education in the Sense of Smell: the Top 101 Smells

Are young people growing up in a frangrence-free environment? I think they are. At least, in the past few years, I've found youth resistant to experiences that include strong smells. These include such diverse activities as cooking, walking through foreign markets, cleaning homes, or studying herbs. Or is it right that young people be so strongly sensitive to smell? Are their senses more sensitive, more strongly impacted by something adults smell as "just right"?  At any rate, include strong smell and--I predict--lots of kids will be down and out, exclaiming, distracted, even faint, totally unable to focus on whatever you were about to do.  What do you think?

It seems to me that a culture full of strong smells--good and bad--couldn't help but be good preparation.  It would toughen you for hard work, care for the land, service to the poor.  It would make novels and poetry all the more evocative.  It will highly improve your cooking.  And when those smells come back, they can be touchstones for memories (hopefully some good ones), not the first unpleasant time you've encountered them.

I, for one, would advocate an education in the sense of smell, by exposure to the following.

Top 101 Smells to experience (divided into "food" and "life"):
  1. Almond
  2. Anise
  3. Apple
  4. Bacon
  5. Banana
  6. Basil
  7. Bay laurel
  8. Beer
  9. Bourbon
  10. Bread baking
  11. Cherries
  12. Chicken soup
  13. Chocolate
  14. Cilantro
  15. Cinnamon
  16. Cloves
  17. Coconut
  18. Coffee
  19. Cumin
  20. Curry
  21. Dill
  22. Fried chicken
  23. Garlic
  24. Ginger
  25. Grapefruit
  26. Green pepper
  27. Ham
  28. Honey
  29. Horseradish
  30. Lemon
  31. Licorice
  32. Lime
  33. Maple syrup
  34. Melon
  35. Mint
  36. Molasses
  37. Mustard
  38. Olives
  39. Onion
  40. Orange
  41. Oregano
  42. Parmesan
  43. Parsley
  44. Peach
  45. Potato
  46. Rosemary
  47. Root beer / Sarsparilla
  48. Sage
  49. Sauteed mushrooms
  50. Soy sauce
  51. Tea
  52. Thyme
  53. Toast
  54. Tomato
  55. Vanilla
  56. Wine
 Other . . . smells for a fully human life
  1. Aloe
  2. Beeswax
  3. Bleach
  4. Burning leaves
  5. Cattle
  6. Cedar
  7. Chickens
  8. Chrysanthemum
  9. Compost
  10. Cut grass
  11. Dung
  12. Erasers
  13. Hay
  14. Heather
  15. Horses
  16. Incense
  17. Ink
  18. Jasmine
  19. Juniper
  20. Lavender
  21. Leather
  22. Lilac
  23. Lily-of-the-Valley
  24. Nasturtium
  25. Old books
  26. Old stone
  27. Orange blossom
  28. Paint
  29. Paper
  30. Pencils
  31. Pigs
  32. Pine
  33. Pipe Tobacco
  34. Rose
  35. Salt sea
  36. Sheep
  37. Shoe polish
  38. Soap
  39. Starch
  40. Stargazer Lily
  41. Struck matches, sulpher
  42. Sweat
  43. Wet earth
  44. Wood shavings
  45. Vinegar
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