Why does ground coffee smell like tuna?

Question

thank you for the informational & quite comical responses!!! i dunno why it is, but the scent of ground coffee (most ground coffee) before it is prepared smells like tuna to me. i'm not pregnant. i dunno what the deal is!

Answer 1

Primarily, it depends on which type of roast, but also smells can vary from person to person. The human sense of smell is based on the association of what the receptors in the nose pick up and the link of the neuron, or brain cell, to a specific term, picture, and/or object, i.e. when your nose picks up the scent of a lily, the information is sent to your brain and associates that smell with the word lily and a mental picture of one.
Sometimes, your brain can be tricked into linking scents with other odors because of fluctuations of hormones in the brain or the jogging of a memory. The sense of smell is closely related to memory, so perhaps, for you specifically, ground coffee and tuna were related somehow in your childhood. Still, the links in the brain are complicated, so there are multiple other answers that are plausible in this situation.

Answer 2

I love the smell of ground coffee does not smell like tuna to me

Answer 3

I love the smell of fresh ground coffee. It has NEVER smelled like tuna. Very weird that you experienced that.

Answer 4

I've never experienced that myself...ground fresh or store bought? I think someone is playng a cruel joke ...the ole tuna smelling coffee trick!!...the nerve of some people(wink wink)

Answer 5

are you pregnant??? i have never thought ground coffee smelled like tuna, but i will say when i was pregnant, many things smelled different to me than they actually did.

Answer 6

my coffee never smelled like tuna. ask someone else to smell it before you use it.

Answer 7

Jeez, I thought I was the only one who thought that! It doesn't ALWAYS smell like tuna, just sometimes. And, nope, not pregnant!

Answer 8

Umm...are there any legs open in the vicinity of the coffee grinder?

Fix that issue, then grind coffee beans.

Answer 9

Don,t know but have you took a whiff of plain fritos cornchips after being left out in the sun??? just as weird Huh???

Answer 10

Mmm nothin like watchin those beans spit wide open and that vast heavenly aroma that tells me .....OH S**T! the house is on fire lol