Our office was situated in the middle of several factories owned by the McCormick spice company, and it was fun to come into work each day and find out by smell what they were dry roasting that morning. Once, we had some guests from China visiting the offices, and no one ever explained our proximity to the spice plant. I’m sure they figured it out on their own, but I like to imagine they went home believing that Americans were so decadent, we perfumed the outside air with cinnamon for no reason at all.
