The Smell of Chocolate: The "Wow: Moment of the Summer

It's the end of August but you would not know it if it were based on the oppressive heat we are feeling here in the New York area!  One thing is for sure though, is that I am ready to say "good bye until next year" to the city smells on a very hot day (it was 95 in New York)!  The smells of bus fumes, dirt and grime on the sidewalks, rotting trash, and the over sweet fruity perfumes on pedestrians.  I say "end the trend of overly sweet fragrances if it's over 80 degrees!" I want fresh.  Give me fresh fragrances that are simple and make me want to bathe in them, and let me remember places like Capri and the South of France with bergamot, lavender and orange blossoms' soothing, seductive aura in the summer air.  

Putting sticky sweet perfumes aside, I want to remember all the wonderful smells I've captured and stored in my olfactive memory that hides deep inside my brain.  They would be the smells of mint from my garden for infusions,  and ginger from the Dark 'N' Stormies that I discovered while out on Block Island during the Block Island Boat Week; fresh basil from our garden that went directly into making pesto, and partnered with many a tomato and mozzarella side dishes. But the most memorable scent and moment ever? It would be that thrilling moment when one of my Essential Awakenings™ attendees at the Greens of Greenwich described chocolate as "sweet".  This dear sweet woman for whom I have known for more than a year usually can't detect smells, so you can imagine how thrilled I was that she was able to decipher the smell of chocolate  as "sweet". That, my dear readers was the thrill of the summer for all summer smells!