What IS that aroma???

[steveo2916]

Alright all you experts! This has been bugging us for years! There is one particular aroma we catch here and there on St John EVERY time we visit. We'll be driving along and WHIFF...THERE IT IS...OUR ISLAND SMELL!

Okay, so it reminds me vaguely of something a bit skunky, mixed with the aroma of fresh coffee. Not at all unattractive, in a coffee-skunky sort of way! Seems like it must be a plant aroma.

Soooooo.....WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?????????

Thanking all of you experts in advance!

(Ruth, perhaps you could bottle it!)

SteveO.

[ccasebolt]

I think I know what you're talking about - I've always blamed it on the mongooses (they are related to the skunk family, after all). It unfortunately became a joke during our last trip; the guys being guys started to blame every smell on the mongooses - and believe me, no mongoose could ever smell that bad!

[StJohnRuth]

I know exactly what you mean. I sometimes convince myself that it's jasmine, but I don't really thing it is.
I'm going to ask someone. I'll start with Pam Gaffin.
-Ruth

[Eric in NJ]

I know what your talking about but I don't know what causes it. I actually was driving home from work this passed summer through NJ farmland in my convertible and I caught a whiff of the same smell and I swear my brain flashed St. John!!

[ATG]

YEAH, we've smelled that same thing too! I thought I read somewhere that it is from the Bay Rum trees? Who knows, but like Eric said, I've gotten a similar wiff of it here once in NJ, and I was instantaneously brought back to STJ.

[XOXO]

I forgot about it until now but we smelled it too and thought it smelled like a skunk--just weaker.

Too funny. Now I am very curious.

Gina

[mbw1024]

god I thought I was crazy a few weeks back. I never smelled it here in Jersey though. definitley an island thing for me! is it tamarind (no IDEA what that smells like!)

[California Girl]

I just thought someone was growing some real good pot!

[RickG]

Well, I always think it's a fine Bay Rum Tree. That wonderful solventy cinnamon aroma. Sweet Christine has argued that it is mongoose pee (she is wrong!).

Ahhh, Bay leaves, it rubs the lotion on its body!

Cheers, RickG

[Verve]

[susan & herb]

California girl, my husband and I had the same thought! Smelled the odor as we began driving thru the park and we looked at each other.

[liamsaunt]

John and I always thought that smell came from the leaves that pile up underneath the dense trees along the roads/trails and start to decay...that sort of funky, musty, but weirdly yummy smell.

[alw1977]

I too recognize the smell. I'm with liamsaunt. It smells like natural decay to me (animal and plant matter). It's sort of funky, sort of pungent, but somehow not altogether unpleasant. It's a smell we "city folk" don't get exposed to very often. That's my thought.

[Pia]

Certain times of the year there is a really funky smell and I notice that it is at the same time as there are small yellow "fruits" scattered around everywhere - on the road, on the trails etc so I blame them

I don't know what they are but right now we are odor free as I haven't seen them for a few months (if this is the same smell that you are refering to)

Pia

[sea-nile]

I thought it was what CA girl said.