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A few readers let us know that they smelled the sickly sweet smell of a maple syrup-like substance last evening. Now, this brings back a flood of memories from 2005, when a maple syrup smell blanketed much of Manhattan.
The smell, which has made return visits in early December 2005 aJanuary 2006, March 2006 and November 2006, leading us to believe this is a cold weather phenomena. One reader noted that it was detected around Columbia University, but not around West 72nd Street, while another agreed it was on the Upper West Side but felt it actually smelled more like anti-freeze "which, if you ever
spilled while adding to your radiator, has a nasty maple syrup smell."
Did you smell it? And earlier this year, it smelled like mercaptan, a chemical used to make natural gas smell like, well, what we think of as natural gas.
Update, January 5, 2009: It's back in 2009—more details.
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Oh, us sheltered city folk!
This maple syrup smell is simply the smell of industry. I grew up in an NYC town that had a few factories near my town, and on my way to school every single winter morning, I'd smell that maple syrup smell.
As I understand it, the humidity in the summer weighs down the smell, and it does not travel as it does in colder weather.
Heck, I wish we had more of that smell. Our nation is in dire need of stronger industry.
i have smelled this smell during the summer months also...in NJ
i think it is the evil super villian "the WAFFLER"
decending on Gotham.
chemical warfare testing!
Smells like Teen Spirit
#1. That's what I thought too, but no one has officially bothered to give us that answer, and frankly, I think they would at this point if that was the explanation.
wow, last night I could totally smell this.
News Flash: Stench Disappears!
Got in a taxi and was smelling it at 108th. Kept smelling it when i got home to 135th Street.
Has anyone ever noticed how when you are driving through Industry City on the Gowanus there is a new smell every week? Sometimes it's coffee. Sometimes it smells like vanilla cake mix and sometimes it smells like cotton candy. There must be a warehouse down there that is filled with all sorts of fun stuff! No maple syrup though.
freaky! i smelled it too!!
it was really strong when i was having my pancakes at breakfast this morning.
I smelled it to, on my way to class. I didn't think it smelled like maple syrup. It was more like a hint of curry, but more pungent. I thought I was going out of my mind.
this morning i biked over one of those chimney things with steam/smoke coming out of it all over midtown on 6th ave.
the steam had a very sweet smell to it. i think this is where its coming from.
I love the giant Mrs Butterworth, bearing down on the Empire State Building. Was that really a 1010wins graphic? Brilliant.
I was in Edgewater, NJ and I smelled the maple syrup last night...I even smelled it inside the movie theather while watching THe Darjeeling LImited....
So I decided to google this to see if anyone was talking about it and this website was the only one that mentioned it..
BTW: I'm now in the mood for some waffles..
i was on the 6th floor of a building at 14th and 7th and smelled it on wednesday. only from up there, not on the ground. innnnteresting.
it's a faux chemical test to how far and fast a chemical can spread in the event of a chemical weapon terrorist attack. maple syrup does not resemble any lethal chemicals and is therefore used as a testing agent.
i smelled it in chelsea and the east village. it smelled good. i thought it was my sweater.
Mrs. Butterworth????
Mrs. Butterworth??????
There is no Mrs. Butterworth genuine MAPLE SYRUP!!!
I suspect a massive counterfeiting operation hidden away in a deserted warehouse. I will be dispatching Lt. Joe Gunther of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation on the next train.
Beware miscreants! He will have orders to reveal this fraudulent criminal enterprise!
Beware Yorkers, you may be victims of gastronomical deprevation!