Here’s a question for you, readers, and it’s something that I hadn’t given much thought to: have you ever gone through a car wash or have been in the driveway, scrubbing down your pride and joy, when the smell hits you…and it smells delicious? No doubt you’ve smelled waxes, car wash mixes, leather conditioners, cleaners and the like. Most people tend to find the aromas very pleasing. Why is that?
Chances are good that two main ingredients are suddenly causing you to have a craving for something tropical, and they are related: caranuba wax and palm oil. Caranuba wax is a natural coating that forms on the fronds of the caranuba palm, and palm oil is derived from the fruits of one of three different oil palm trees. Palm fruits are edible. Caranuba wax is used on candies and pills. It’s not that far of a stretch to link car detailing items to food.
Photo: Starbucks
Then there is the visual aspect that works in connection with your nose: bright, attractive colors. The “unicorn sauce” (my term) soap/wax mix that you find at drive-through car washes has a nice, bright, tropical color mix to it. I can’t help but think that someone at Starbucks might have had some inspiration when the Unicorn Frappuccino (above) was created. Please, do not confuse the two. One is supposed to be a delicious drink. The other will simply confirm to society that you are an idiot if you slather some on your tongue. And if you need any more confirmation that visual cues are directly related to your taste buds, look at the color of soaps in the aisle: dark reds, bright greens, citrus colors, purples. These are all food colors, all with their own unique scents.
Why did this come up? Because when I checked the inbox this morning (while I was having my donut before clocking in, don’t worry) I had a message from a brave individual who admitted that, out of pure curiosity and nothing more, performed a taste-test and ended up waxing the inside of their mouth. Blech…”curiosity killed the cat”, indeed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I just saw someone with a knife, fork, and an open tin of Turtle Wax at the counter.
Bryan – the one thing you shouldn’t have put in your mouth before writing this is the tab of brown acid the weird old hippy who survived Woodstock who lives down your street gave you!
We have a K&N displays on our front counter, the one where you swap out the filters and adjust the airflow through a tube with a ping pong ball inside it. One of our guys walked out of the back to find a customer with his mouth completely wrapped around the tube. Yes, this guy was blowing the K&N display.
Not exactly edible, but fits the title.