Train your nose in the kitchen

You don't need a lab to learn notes: your kitchen is full of them. Smell these ten, then go find them in perfumes.

How to practise

Three or four items per session, no more: your nose tires quickly.
Close your eyes, smell, then name it.
Describe it in three words: warm or cool? sweet or bitter? sharp or soft?
Between two smells, sniff the skin of your forearm to reset. (There's little evidence coffee beans do it better.)
Have someone put the items in identical cups and guess without looking.
Then try a perfume with that note and see if you can pick it out.

0 of 10 smelled

Rub a few threads between your fingers, or smell a drop of brewed saffron.

Leathery, honeyed and a little metallic. You'll meet it a lot in oud and leather perfumes.

Crack open a cardamom pod and smell it.

Fresh, sharp and slightly camphoraceous, like eucalyptus: a 'cool' spice that brightens a perfume.

Snap a cinnamon stick.

Warm, sweet and spicy: the heart of many winter and gourmand scents.

Put a drop of rosewater on the back of your hand and let it dry.

Rosy, fresh, a little green and watery. Rose in perfume is usually richer and more honeyed, but this is its root.

Fold a piece of orange peel so the oil sprays out, then smell it.

The bright, sweet citrus spark that opens so many perfumes, and fades just as fast.

Smell freshly ground coffee or beans.

Bitter, roasted and a little chocolatey: found in gourmand and evening scents.

Smell a little vanilla sugar or vanilla extract.

Sweet, creamy and warm: one of the most used base notes. Vanilla sugar is mostly vanillin, the same molecule perfumes use a lot.

Crush a fresh mint leaf between your fingers.

Cool, sharp and green: in summery, fresh scents.

Smell a spoonful of dry tea, then brewed tea.

Dry, leafy and a little smoky. Dry and brewed tea smell different, just like a perfume's opening and its dry-down.

Break a clove.

Warm, spicy and a bit medicinal. The carnation flower's smell comes largely from the same molecule (eugenol).