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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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.