Can you smell that coffee shop ... smell?

If you are of a certain age, you will remember the downside of going to the pub with your mates before the smoking ban: coming home reeking of smoke. This was just an accepted – yet unpleasant – side effect of sharing a public space with nicotine addicts, even if you'd gone out for half a pint. Any clothing you wore on a night out would have to go straight in the laundry because it smelt terrible, and you also had to make sure you had a shower and washed your hair. This would get the the stench out easily enough, but it was still an annoyance.

Now that the ban is in force across the UK (and has been accepted pretty much by everyone universally), this problem does not exist. This is a good thing, not just because of how our clothes smell, but also because our risk of acquiring passive-smoking related cancer is reduced substantially.

It is curious to think that my sons' generation will grow up completely oblivious of the dreaded 'pub odour'.

But, there is a new phenomenon, and it is the 'coffee shop odour'.

My 'local'

I only really noticed it recently. I'd been to my usual coffee shop at the end of the road for a drink with a friend. When I came back, my wife – who had been out and didn't know where I'd been – casually asked about my trip to the coffee shop (all because I reeked of coffee).

Admittedly, there are worse things you can come home smelling of – but it's a bit unnerving that just going for a (non-alcoholic) drink can make you a bit wiffy.