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The sweet smell of the T, at least at Union Square

By adamg on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 10:01am

Neal Gaffey asks:

Does anyone know why the Union Square T station smells like chocolate? It is delightful.

Neighborhoods: 
Somerville
Topics: 
The T
Union Square
chocolate
Green Line
Green Line Extension


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Comments

By adamg on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 10:05am.

Taco Bell's Cannon says:

Taza factory maybe? What direction is the wind blowing in this evening?

If not, maybe the ghosts of the Necco/Deran's factory on Cambridge St.

Merryr replies:

Def Taza, it's right across the tracks, next to the empty biotech building.

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By Tim Mc. on Sun, 12/29/2024 - 8:15am.

When you walk into the building you just get *walloped* by the smell of warm chocolate. There's a factory store and they also do tours.

By Ari O on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 11:01am.

Really upping the user experience game.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 11:07am.

Most likely Taza.

Their factory is near Union by the tracks.

I highly recommend a tour/visit.

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By Ron Newman on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 2:36pm.

when the Deran / Borden / Necco factory was still operating across Cambridge Street from the station.

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By mg on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 3:36pm.

Many days, walking to class from Central Square was chocolicious.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 5:36pm.

The factory by MIT was especially chocolaty when they were unloading the fudge tankers.

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By destinationlechmere on Sun, 12/29/2024 - 8:52am.

Now we make do when the wind is right with the satisfying scents from down McGrath. Side note: they saved one of the old tumblers from that chocolate factory, shined it up, and put it in the lobby.

By Ward8Mahatma on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 3:45pm.

…Ashmont & the whole Lower Mills neighborhood in Walter Baker Chocolate’s heyday

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By cybah on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 5:04pm.

I'm partial to Malden Center station smelling like roasted coffee beans because New England Coffee is down commercial street or Wellington smelling like roasted nuts or peanuts because the Leavitt (Teddie) factory is there.

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By Neal on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 6:48pm.

I lived in Malden at the turn of the century, and on some days the roasty-toasty smell of the New England Coffee Roasters plant, less than a mile away on Charles St (I lived on Newton St, a couple of blocks behind Sun Kong and the Car Wash), was pretty evident. The first few times I smelled it, I assumed someone was making toast or that it came from Piantedosi Bakery's plant on Commercial St.

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 8:47pm.

I do water sampling in that area of the Malden River once a month. I have always had to explain the overwhelming smell of baking bread of an early morning to new sampling folks.

By Ron Newman on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 10:27pm.

which blanketed its surroundings with the lovely smell of freshly baked bread.

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By Oxenfree on Mon, 12/30/2024 - 10:03am.

The first few months after I moved to Malden, I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out why it constantly smelled like popcorn. A few years later and it's now one of my favorite things about this city.

I haven't smelled the roasting nuts (unless you're talking about the nut vendor inside the station) - when do they usually roast?

By adamg on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 7:22pm.

The area around the Natick Mall often smelled like fresh bread because of the Wonder Bread plant behind it (the plant occupied part of the space now used for the "new" wing of the mall, although it had closed a couple years before plans for that were approved). Turns out the chemical that makes fresh bread smell so good is also involved in the manufacture of stuff like Wonder Bread.

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By TomW on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 8:00pm.

Atlantic Gelatin had a plant right next to I-93 in Woburn. I actually liked the smell of this as you drove past on the highway, but I think the people who lived nearby were less enamored of it.

A bit farther north, near the Lowell/Billerica/Tewksbury line, there was the Corenco plant ("COncord RENdering COmpany"). They did animal fat rendering there. You could smell it quite a ways away and it was atrocious.

By cybah on Sun, 12/29/2024 - 10:22am.

Nothing worse that the fur factory on Marginal Street near me on a very hot summer day. Smells like rotting flesh.

By Neal on Sun, 12/29/2024 - 12:40pm.

I grew up a few miles north of there and spent many hours in my teens and twenties at the Bickford's on Montvale Ave (one of only two Bickford's still in operation today) and depending on what they would be making that day at the Atlantic Gelatin plant next door, the Bickford's parking lot would smell like cherry, lemon, lime, orange, or rotting pig carcasses.

By Neal on Sun, 12/29/2024 - 2:07pm.

I came across this Woburn Historical Society produced history video about it.

By notadoctor on Sun, 12/29/2024 - 4:37pm.

Sorry to break it to you, but the Bickfords on Montvale closed a while ago.. :-(

By Ron Newman on Sun, 12/29/2024 - 10:41pm.

on Route 3 in Burlington

By H Hartz on Mon, 12/30/2024 - 11:58am.

One thing I love when I go back is driving past the Anheuser Busch brewery and smelling the malt/bready smell that I used to smell every day.

By Nowy Liberté on Tue, 12/31/2024 - 12:48pm.

Most of those kinds of odors were common all around Greater Boston -- back when Greater Boston was known for making things that people could identify by sight or smell

Now most of Greater Boston makes things which often take an advanced degree to even know the name of the substance or object or the meaning of a collection of bits

Another change -- if you notice something unusual coming out of the forest of vents on a building or you hear some alarms -- don't stand around sniffing -- find out which way the wind is blowing and head away