It’s not only the eyes that behold beauty—it’s the nose, too.

While it may be the case that the human sense of smell has been scientifically proven to be much less acute than that of any other mammal on the planet, this lack of acuity as compared to other mammals does not, however, diminish the potent memories and emotions that smells can elicit.

Rachel Herz, a pioneer in the psychology of smell, conducted a study in which she found that memories induced by smell are the most emotionally charged as compared to memories elicited by other senses, such as sight, sound or feel.

With fires burning throughout our state and the horrendous amount of smoke bombarding the city and noses, a lot of the memorable smells of our city, the ones that carry so much sentimental value with many, are lost.

In an attempt at bringing those memories of the wonders of Sacramento back into our lives, some Sacramentans have shared their favorite, or most memorable, scents of the city.

Sweet Senses
Bringing many back to the comforts of childhood, the Sacramento Sweets store in Old Town Sacramento is filled with the smell of sweet candy and freshly popped popcorn. The smell overflows out onto the street attracting the costumers with its awesome aroma.

“I don’t know why, but [the smell] gets out in the air and universally attracts people,” explained owner Jason Minow.

He explained that he could hardly smell the pungent aroma anymore because he spends so much time exposed to it.

“Especially the vanilla,” he said as he poured a tablespoon of the strongly scented vanilla on the taffy as it was being stretched and pulled on the specialized machine. “It’s the base of almost everything [we make].”

Run for the Roses
One cannot think of the importance of smells without noting the wonderful smells of flowers. With rose gardens in both McKinley Park as well as on the Capitol grounds, Sacramento is a lovely place to enjoy the wonderful smells of the garden. Chuck, who has worked at the Capital City Nursery off and on for 30 years, and who wished to leave his last name unnoted, explained that people come into the nursery looking for particular smells frequently.

“Normally [customers] like a spicier scent for a rose,” he said. “People also come looking for gardenias, star jasmine and lavenders [particularly for their scent].”

He noted that his favorite garden smell is the Daphne.

“Daphne in the early spring is like a little bit of heaven,” he added.

Some flowers are even chosen for the affect of their smell on garden pests.

“[The smell of] marigolds repels insects like slugs and snails,” Chuck said.

Vegetable gardeners often plant marigolds around the edges of their gardens to protect their vegetables from slugs and snails because these pests will eat the marigolds first.

Not-So-Pleasant Pick
“When I think of Sacramento I’m always reminded of the smell of horse manure from the carriages in Old Sac,” explained 21-year-old barista Maddie Ofina.

The horse-drawn carriages in Old Sac are one of the signature scenes of the area and are incredibly alluring, especially so for the youngsters in the family and tourists from out of town, but for some the smell of the horse manure can make the experience less charming and more offending.

“Some customers even wear little masks over their noses and mouths [during the rides],” explained one of the carriage drivers who wished to remain anonymous.

Although the smell is not pleasant for all and a little amusing and unusual to think about, this smell has definitely made an impression on those who encounter it.

Joyous Java
The Sacramento-based coffee house Java City was founded more than 25 years ago and has always had great appeal to coffee lovers, not only because of the high quality coffee that can be consumed there, but also because of the incredibly potent aroma of the roasting of coffee beans in the Capitol Street store. It has been cited in many articles over the past quarter of a century, and created such a unique experience that it drew many customers for that reason alone. With the expanding popularity of the store and the extension of stores overseas in England, Ireland and South Korea, the roasting took a turn toward higher production. This meant that the in-store roasting plant could no longer meet the high demands for coffee, and was moved to a plant in Natomas, taking the alluring aroma with it.

“It was a treat to spend weekend evenings with the warm scent of roasting coffee beans in the air, chatting with friends and sipping at the freshly brewed coffees and watching the machinery move the beans along,” noted a longtime Sacramentan.

With the smoke finally clearing in the area, we will once again be able to smell the wonderful scents of our city and let our noses connect us with our favorite memories and present aromas.

So if you haven’t thought about it before, what are your favorite smells of our city? Tell Alison—email her at .