Reference point
Stand near where fireworks have just been set off and smell the first white smoke.
Do this before you read on. An entry only works when you have just smelled the thing.
Sharp, mineral, with a sulphur note and a layer of dry smoke. It evaporates very quickly and disperses within a few dozen seconds.
Its origin is entirely inorganic: sulphur, potassium nitrate and the metal salts that give colour. It belongs to the same group as a struck match, but on a much larger scale.
It sits in the top stage because the sulphur compounds are small and evaporate extremely quickly — the same reason durian carries so far.
How to smell it
After a firework display, stand downwind and smell the white smoke as it drifts towards you. You have only a few dozen seconds before it disperses.
Why this one is hard
Because the chance is rare, and because the noise and light completely overwhelm the sense of smell in that moment.
Don’t confuse with
This entry
Firework smoke
Smoky & Mineral family
The same sulphur group, but fireworks are on a much larger scale and add metal salts for colour.
Scientific note
Firecrackers release sulphur dioxide together with metal oxides that depend on the colourants. These are very light inorganic molecules that diffuse extremely fast and cling to no surface. That is why the smell of fireworks disperses within a few dozen seconds — faster than any smell of biological origin in this dictionary.
In Vietnamese life
Firecrackers have been banned in Vietnam since the beginning of 1995, and with that ban a smell disappeared from the lunar new year of a whole generation. It is the only entry in the dictionary whose reference point was changed by an administrative decision.