Sniff Your Way to the Season’s Best Gifts

Ever notice that some of the most interesting places to shop smell wonderful? Believe it or not, scent marketing is a thing. Researchers are constantly studying how fragrances affect our buying habits. Turns out that we are 84 percent more likely to buy a pair of Nike shoes and willing to pay more for them when the store smells of some mystery aroma. Call it the anti-dirty sneaker effect.

Rather than let marketers lead you by the nose with their faux fragrances, we sniffed around and found a handful of places to shop and explore where you know the smells are genuine. The bonus for you is a fragrant travel adventure.

Chocolate

Taza Chocolate (Facebook)

The rich aroma of chocolate is sweet perfume to the connoisseur’s senses. If shopping for chocolates is on your agenda this holiday season, an obvious place like Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa., might be your first stop. The factory tour is simulated, but the fragrance emanating from floor-to-ceiling displays of every imaginable flavor of tiny foil-wrapped kisses is the real deal.

For a more intimate chocolate experience, try Taza Chocolate in Somerville, Mass. The chocolate here is stone ground and organic. You can tour the factory and buy gifts sure to melt the heart of any chocolate lover on your list. Or give the gift of an intensive “Chocolate Week” in Belize that Taza has planned for March 2015. Theo Chocolate in Seattle is another organic, fair-trade chocolatier with a factory and retail store combination. It uses beans from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Panama to produce a range of products from bars to delectable peanut butter cups.

Related: Sleep in a Chocolate Factory: Rest Your Head in One of These Post-Industrial Hotels

Baked Goods

The Boudin market in San Francisco (Mac Steve/Flickr)

Your smell-eat-shop adventure would not be complete without a bakery. Boudin’s sourdough bakery on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco has a demonstration bakery, an eatery, and of course a shop so that you have a legitimate excuse for going there besides stuffing your face.

No matter what you think of fruitcake, the aroma wafting from the Collin Street Bakery facility in Corsicana, Texas, is enough to make you want to step through the doors to taste for yourself why the bakery sells more than a million of these things every year. Never fear, there’s also a nonfruitcake array of cakes, pies, and breads to fill your shopping list.

Then there is Harry & David, part chocolate factory, part bakery, part food-gift nirvana. The factory in Medford, Ore., is where Moose Munch was born. The air is heavy with the blended aromas of chocolate, roasted nuts, and popcorn. It’s enough to make you forget that you are supposed to be shopping for gifts for other people. Take an extra suitcase along for this trip; you’re going to need it.

Coffee

Espresso brewing at the Rotisserie (Facebook)

You can probably find a coffee gift for your favorite coffee-holics on almost any street corner, but why not treat them to a fragrant roasting tour as part of the gift? Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago offers select tour dates for $30. The Rotisserie in Kansas City, Mo., offers free tours six days a week.

Popcorn

Sneaking a popcorn treat at Campbell’s Sweets Factory (Facebook)

Popcorn purists may say that only that which you pop yourself qualifies as truly great popcorn, but I defy those people to breathe the air at Campbell’s Sweets Factory in Cleveland and not step inside for a taste of heaven in the form of the company’s 25 flavors. Another option is to find a Garrett’s Popcorn Shop, which started in Chicago, but now has shops in Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York, and around the globe. They had me at “crème brulee.”

Candles

Aisles of candles at the Yankee Candle Village (Janice Walzter/Flickr)

There are probably people on your list who would prefer nonedible gifts. Candles are a good place to start. Yankee Candle Villages in both Williamsburg, Va., and South Deerfield, Mass., not only smell delightful, but offer hands-on activities for all ages. Small candle factories abound in Amish Country. The Old Candle Barn in Intercourse, Pa., can fill your shopping basket with both fragrant and novelty candles.

Related: Peeps, Twinkies, and Sriracha, Oh My! Factory Tours of Cult Foods Favorites Are on the Rise

Perfumes

What could be better than a lavender farm on Hawaii? (Facebook)

Why not step away from the department store perfume counters this season and find a more meaningful fragrance gift. Annie Oakley Perfumery in Ligonier, Ind., offers tours and the option of having a custom fragrance created. While lavender growers in northern regions of the country are on holiday, you can still find farm tours and fragrant gift shops filled with soaps, oils, and even jams in more temperate climates. In Texas, try Becker Vineyards in Stonewall, where the fragrant wine is a bonus. In Hawaii, visit Ali’i Kula Lavender Farm on Maui.

Crayolas

Crayola factory (Julie/Flickr)

Just think the word “crayon” and the smell pops into your head with incredible accuracy. For the youngsters and the young-at-heart on your list, a visit to the Crayola Experience in Easton, Pa., is the perfect topper to your aromatic shopping adventures. They even let you melt crayons and play with the drippings.

WATCH: 4D Movie to Debut at Hershey’s Chocolate World

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