Fragrance Numerical Rating System

As promised, here is the text I said I'd enter and send out:

Remember, I AM NOT THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE!!!  I typed it just as she
wrote it (except I couldn't underline and emphasize)......

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It was written by Louise C. Smith:

---------------------1976---------------------------
The Numerical Rating System for Fragrance as used by Fragrance Robin
Members
(especially useful when sniffing lots of blooms, -as at conventions)

unpleasant scents
1   -   slightly bad
2   -   medium bad
3   -   really bad
33  -   even worse
333 -   turns my stomach

spicy scents
4   -   slightly spicy
5   -   medium spicy
6   -   really spicy

sweet scents
7   -   slightly sweet
8   -   medium sweet
9   -   very sweet
99  -   even sweeter
999 -   really flips me!

irisy - an odd scent very common in LOTS of irises - not good, not 	bad

both good and bad scents in the same sniff:  put a plus sign between 
applicable ratings as:  1+9; 3+4; 7+2, etc.

Note:  If you and a friend sniff the same blossom but have different
perceptions of its' scent - write down BOTH opinions.

Other methods:  Some persons have such acute senses of smell, they
cannot divide the quality of intensity into just the above, but give
'plus' and 'minus' signs, to signify the intensity is just a bit more or
just a wee bit more less than the straight number code.  (The more minus
signs...the less the scent)

The air temperature affects scents, and so does humidity.....have you
ever noticed that when a thunderstorm is approaching - suddenly the
entire iris garden will have lovely scent floating all over it....but
that it is not always possible to locate any source of the perfumes?

I rarely use the comment for 'spicy' for to me spicy is usually either
spicy-bad or spicy-sweet.

Smokers:  sense of smell is often apt to be dulled, or even
non-existant.

ZINC:  can often be taken as tablets from the health food stores to
restore sense of smell.  Takes quite awhile, but it worked for me.  I
lost my sense of smell after a nose operation in high school , but
regained it when I was 60 years old when a doctor put me on a high
vitamin and high mineral diet.  So, you see, it really wasn't entirely
the operation, but my daily poor diet.

For myself, I have never had my nose get 'dull' from sniffing too many
blooms, one right after the other.  After all, I do keep on breathing
in-and-out all the bits of time betweens. Neither do I know anyone
personally who is allergic to iris scents.  (Taking Vitamin C is
supposed to eliminate whatever is causing allergies.....anyway, seems
worth a try, doesn't it?)

Scents that don't fit well into a numerical system...so words must be
used (don't forget to rate the intensity of these scents!)

dandelion
boiled potatoes
leather
new cloth
grass
funeral (after awhile I realized this smelled like certain roses used 
to cover a casket at a funeral I attended as a small child)
cool
warm
fresh
like a man (?)(so then I sniffed this, and it smelled like a man's 
smoking jacket!)
pine
soapy (good? bad?)
like a cellar (musty-bad)
burnt (bad? sometimes sweetish?)
like creosote in railroad ties - good (?)
chicken-noodleish
Bac-O's (bacon)
many others

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There you have it, remember I didn't write this, I only typed it from
Louise's rating page instructions.  I don't make any comments on it, I
leave it up to your perusal--so please don't ask me any questions or
interpretations about it.  I hope I didn't make too many typos in
retyping it at this late hour!

E N J O Y ..................

Rick Tasco--Central Sierra Nevada foothills, where the rain has stopped
(1.52 inches today)--no rain expected until Monday when the next Pacific
storm sweeps in!
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