A Nose He Knows

My curious passion for whisky and other drinks has, as its consequence, curious to-do lists. Consider the following:

1. Smell the sap of a tree

2. Eat a honeydew melon

3. Smell the sugary crust of a crème brulee

4. Find out what the hell a blackcurrant is

Never before have my interests necessitated an olfactory education… which is a shame, because now I’m already in my 20s and I have an amateur nose. I cooked dinner the other day—an act I’m proud of—and as I was sifting through unmarked containers of corn starch and measuring out exact portions of Thai sweet chili sauce, I had the idea of, or at least finally got around to executing a dormant plan to… smell my spice cabinet.

Which went something like, “oh—rosemary, so that’s rosemary,” and maybe once or twice I gave out a ”hot damn!” in excitement. And anyway there was much ardent sniffing that took place.