The grocery-shelf anchors
The shopping list.
Every word in Savorant’s course is tied to something you can buy, open and smell. These are all 81 of them, grouped by the ten flavor families. Smell the real thing first, then find it in the glass.
About the brand names. We name a specific product when it’s a reliable, easy-to-find example of the smell, and these are what we tested the course with. They’re recommendations, not requirements: the store brand or any close match works. Savorant isn’t paid by or affiliated with any of these companies, and they don’t endorse Savorant. Brand names are trademarks of their owners.
Sweet 16
- BreadFresh bakery white loaf, torn open
- Bread crustCrust end of a fresh baguette
- Brown sugarDomino dark brown sugar, packed spoonful
- ButterscotchBrach's butterscotch discs
- CaramelKraft soft caramel candy, unwrapped and warmed in hand
- Cocoa powderHershey's natural cocoa powder, dry spoonful
- Cookie doughPillsbury chocolate-chip cookie dough, raw
- CustardSnack Pack vanilla pudding cup
- Dark chocolateLindt 70% square, snapped and sniffed
- Graham crackerHoney Maid graham crackers
- HoneyHoney from the squeeze bear
- MaplePure maple syrup, Grade A dark
- MolassesGrandma's Molasses, opened jar
- Pie crustBaked refrigerated pie crust (Pillsbury), no filling
- VanillaBreyers natural vanilla ice cream
- Vanilla cakeBoxed yellow cake, baked (Betty Crocker)
Fruity 15
- AppleFresh Gala apple, sliced
- BananaVery ripe banana, just peeled
- BerryFrozen mixed berries, thawed
- BlackberryFrozen blackberries, thawed and crushed
- CherryMaraschino cherry jar — fruit plus a spoon of syrup
- CitrusFresh orange peel, zested
- Dried fruitSun-Maid Fruit Bits mixed dried fruit
- LemonFresh lemon zest
- OrangeFresh orange peel, squeezed to express the oil
- Orchard fruitFresh Gala apple + canned pear slice, together
- PeachCanned peaches in heavy syrup
- PineappleCanned pineapple chunks in juice, opened
- RaisinSun-Maid raisins, a handful
- Stone fruitDel Monte canned peaches in syrup
- Tropical fruitDole tropical fruit cup
Floral 4
- ChamomileChamomile tea bag, dry, torn open
- HoneysuckleHoneysuckle vine in season; off-season: wildflower honey
- RoseRose water (international aisle), capful on paper
- VioletChoward's Violet mints (candy aisle)
Herbal 7
- Black teaLipton tea bag, dry, torn open
- Culinary herbsMcCormick poultry seasoning, jar sniffed
- DillDill pickle jar, brine sniffed
- GrassHandful of fresh-cut lawn clippings (not from a store)
- Green bell pepperRaw green bell pepper, freshly sliced
- Mint familyStick of spearmint gum, unwrapped
- Tomato leafVine-cluster tomatoes — smell the stem and vine
Spice 8
- Anise & licoriceGood & Plenty candy
- Baking spiceMcCormick pumpkin pie spice, jar sniffed
- Black pepperFresh-cracked black peppercorns
- CinnamonRed Hots cinnamon candy
- CloveWhole cloves, jar sniffed
- GingerGingersnap cookie
- NutmegMcCormick ground nutmeg, fresh jar
- Root beerA&W root beer, freshly opened
Woody 7
- Aged oakOld hardcover from a used bookstore, opened and sniffed
- CedarCedar pencil shavings
- Charred oakOak grilling chips, edges charred over flame
- CoconutBaker's sweetened shredded coconut
- Fresh oakFresh-split oak firewood or unfinished oak board
- Resin & pinePine essential oil, one drop on paper (aromatherapy aisle)
- Toasted oakWeber oak grilling chips, warmed in a dry pan
Nutty 5
- AlmondSliced raw almonds, crushed in hand
- HazelnutNutella jar, opened and sniffed
- PeanutJif creamy peanut butter jar, opened
- PecanPecan halves, toasted in a dry pan
- WalnutShelled walnuts, crushed
Grainy 5
- Burnt grainWhite toast taken to dark brown, just short of black
- CornJiffy cornbread, baked per box, warm
- MaltOvaltine Classic Malt powder, one spoonful dry
- Rye grainFresh slice of seeded Jewish rye bread (caraway on)
- WheatFresh slice of plain white sandwich bread
Earthy 11
- ChalkCrushed Tums antacid tablet
- Damp cellarStone basement after rain (experiential anchor) (not from a store)
- EarthHandful of fresh potting soil
- FlintFlint striker lighter, sparked and smelled spent
- Hay barnTimothy hay (pet aisle), bag opened
- LeatherNew leather work gloves (hardware store), sniffed
- MushroomRaw button mushrooms from the supermarket
- Roasted coffee beanWhole-bean bag (medium roast), opened and sniffed
- SaltPinch of Morton table salt on the tongue
- TobaccoUnlit cigar, cellophane off
- Wet stoneClean landscaping stones rinsed in cold water
Smoke 3
- CharcoalCold Kingsford briquette, sniffed dry
- Smoked meatOpened package of hickory-smoked bacon
- Wood smokeWright's Liquid Smoke (hickory), one drop on paper
Why the grocery aisle?
You already know what vanilla smells like. You learned it from a cookie, not a vial.
Teaching smell with reference samples isn’t new, and we didn’t invent it. In 1981 Jean Lenoir put wine aromas in numbered vials and sold them as Le Nez du Vin; the whisky edition holds 54 and sells for roughly $400 to $650. In 1984 Ann Noble and her colleagues at UC Davis published the Wine Aroma Wheel, and the reference samples taught with it were made from things you can buy at a grocery store. When World Coffee Research built its coffee lexicon in 2016, most of its references came off the grocery shelf too, down to the brand. Savorant follows the wheel, not the vial.
Life is the kit.
Everything you can smell, you learned by living: bread from a bakery, cut grass from a summer yard, a cellar after rain. The world already holds every smell in the glass, in more versions than any box can. Why look past your own kitchen for something that’s right in front of you?
What a kit does well, and where it narrows.
A kit is consistent: the same vanilla, every time, anywhere in the world. That’s why coffee scientists later added standard capsules to their grocery list, so a lab in Nairobi and a lab in Kansas smell the same thing. For a professional panel, that matters.
For learning, one version can narrow you. A vial teaches one vanilla. Whiskey’s vanilla comes from oak, and it is never the vial’s. The grocery aisle hands you vanilla in ice cream, in extract, in a cookie, in a custard, so the word attaches to the smell and not to one bottle of it. Then, when you meet it in a glass, you know it.
What the research says, honestly.
- Experts
- Wine judges don’t have more sensitive noses than novices. Their edge is remembering the smells of their own field, which is built from what they’ve met.
- Variety
- Early signs that training on varied examples carries over to new smells better than drilling one version: in people, with odor mixtures; in detector dogs, across training studies. Promising, not settled.
- Not yet shown
- Nobody has compared grocery anchors with a scent kit head to head, including us. We say so rather than claim it.
If you own a kit, keep it, and use it beside this list. And when the course ends, the list is still in your kitchen. You don’t finish learning to smell. You keep shopping.