Our ability to detect odours – and how strong or pleasant we find them – also depends on how those detectors work in our own individual noses. We smell a fragrance like violets when a chemical called beta-ionone binds to a detector known as OR5A1. But for about half of people, that detector simply doesn't work. You'll never be able to smell beta-ionone if you're one of them, no matter how much of it is sitting in a vial in front of you.
— Read more in The great smell-off: TikTok sparks debate on American vs European noses at BBC.
I’m glad I can smell violets and also when it is going to rain and petrichor…and I’m American.
I’m glad I can smell violet too.
I can smell rain/petrichor but not violets (I think).
You can probably smell something I can’t smell…
So interesting! I do smell violets and petrichor! Didn’t know these sorts of lack of detectors for certain odors is so much of a thing!
lol, I’m showing this article to my husband. I can smell rain. He’s always thought I was making that up and somehow had seen the weather report and was trying to pull one over on him.
As a European, I can definitely smell Ionone Beta, although it smells woody and sweet to me (Alpha smells like violet much more to me)