The Unexpected Product That's Aimed At Bacon Lovers

There's nothing quite like the smell of bacon sizzling on the stove to rouse you from your Saturday-morning slumber, even if your plant-based diet prevents you from indulging in the cured pork product. Here's a fun fact to bust out at your next party: The reason bacon smells (and tastes) so good is due to something called the Maillard Reaction, which Serious Eats defines as the "many small, simultaneous chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars in and on your food are transformed by heat, producing new flavors, aromas, and colors." It's the reaction that makes your buttered toast malty, your coffee rich and complex, your caramelized onions, uh, caramel-y, and your bacon irresistibly smoky and sweet. 

Bacon's particularly affecting aroma has led to a host of bacon-scented products that are not for eating, including Hormel's "Black Label Breathable Bacon" face mask and bacon-scented wrapping paper. In line with a curiously prolific trend, the meat-packing company Wright Brand Foods announced a new non-edible bacon product that will allow bacon lovers to smell like their favorite meat all day long. 

In honor of its centennial anniversary, Wright Brand has teamed up with perfumer Ann Gottlieb to create a bacon-scented fragrance called Wright N°100, which attempts to capture the brand's "wood-smoked" flavor with notes of "bacon, applewood, bergamot, white patchouli, sandalwood and even a touch of maple syrup," per a June 23 news release. If you're worried about smelling like a greasy skillet all day, the brand claims that the fragrance is delicious and suitable for everyday wear.

The fragrance also honors the brand's founding year by incorporating the perfume base Mousse de Saxe, "a combination of leather and vanilla" that was all the rage back in 1920s. "To create a fragrance as iconic and alluring as Wright Brand bacon, we turned the clocks back to 1922, pulled ingredients popular during that period and combined them with the addictive accord of bacon," said Gottlieb. Wright N°100 is available online in 3.4-ounce bottles for $19.22 a pop for a limited time only.