Our food choices and consumption behaviours are often influenced by odour hedonics, especially in the case of those orthonasally experienced aromas (that is, those odours that are food-related). The origins of odour hedonics remain one of the most intriguing puzzles in olfactory science and, over the years, several fundamentally different accounts have been put forwards to try and explain the varying hedonic responses that people have to a wide range of odorants. Associative learning, innate and molecular accounts of odour pleasantness have all been suggested. Here the origins of the hedonic response to vanilla, which is one of the most liked smells cross-culturally, are explored. The history of vanilla’s use in food and medicine is outlined, with a focus on its neurocognitive appeal. While vanilla is one of the most widely liked aromas, it is also rated as smelling sweet to most people. Food scientists are becoming increasingly interested in the possibility that such ‘sweet smells’ could be used to help maintain the sweetness of commercial food products while, at the same time, reducing the use of calorific sweeteners. Such an approach is likely to be facilitated by the low cost of artificial vanilla flavouring (when compared with the high and fluctuating price of natural vanilla pods).

我们的食物选择和消费行为常常受到气味享乐的影响，尤其是那些鼻腔体验到的香气（即那些与食物相关的气味）。气味享乐的起源仍然是嗅觉科学中最有趣的谜题之一，多年来，已经提出了几个根本不同的解释来试图解释人们对各种气味的不同享乐反应。联想学习、先天和分子对气味愉悦的描述都被提出来了。这里探讨了对香草的享乐反应的起源，香草是跨文化中最受欢迎的气味之一。概述了香草在食品和药物中的使用历史，重点是它的神经认知吸引力。虽然香草是最受欢迎的香味之一，它也被大多数人评为闻起来很甜。食品科学家对这种“甜味”可用于帮助保持商业食品的甜味同时减少热量甜味剂的使用的可能性越来越感兴趣。人造香草调味剂的低成本（与天然香草豆荚的高价和波动性相比）可能会促进这种方法。