Even with today’s asphalt-paved life in the fast lane, we somehow still maintain a basic yearning for rain and its life-giving wetness. When I searched for answers to the question “what is that smell after rain?” I found scientific explanations (to follow). Yet they don’t touch the palpable craving for that smell, the memories it evokes of childhood and home, of a time and place where we started to grow, put down roots and reach a certain starting point. Perhaps this is why the smell after the rain stirs in one’s heart a feeling of renewal and a fresh, new start.

The smell of rain is wisely produced and created for us (and for other living creatures, as you will soon see) by nature’s main players: plants, microbes, and rocks. In nature, this scent essentially has two main components: geosmin and petrichor.

Geosmin (literally “earth smell”) is an organic compound produced by various microorganisms: in water it is algae, in soil it is bacteria. Under hot, dry conditions, these microbes die in the earth, sending out geosmin-laden spores that can remain dormant even over many years of very dry, hot seasons. Once they meet rain and moisture, the geosmin smell is augmented, the spores disperse into the air through the raindrops, and emit the “rain-like” scent—essentially, the smell of earth. Our love for this scent is important to the microbes, who need us to come close and toy with their spores to spread them. And indeed, the human nose is extremely sensitive to geosmin and can detect it even at minimal concentrations.

One of the animals most sensitive to the smell of geosmin is the camel. That comes as no great surprise, since this animal has a profoundly acute need to pick up even the slightest trace of the scent of water and moisture. Camels can detect water from an incredible distance (up to 80 km!) thanks to their heightened sensitivity to the geosmin scent. In camel terms, it is a matter of life and death. Also, many soil dwellers - dust mites, earthworms and other burrowers - are also attracted to the scent of geosmin and assist the microbes in their mission to disperse.

This group of microbes, actinomycetes (specifically streptomyces), is a vital group of soil-dwelling bacteria for producing antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal substances from natural sources. Perhaps our attraction to their odor is not only pleasant nostalgia for a time in life when there was a wet plot of soil nearby, but also a key tool in our attraction to substances that protect us – especially throughout the cold, rainy winter.

But this smell is not always desirable. Water purification facilities aim to remove it from the groundwater which makes its way to your taps. Winemakers try to fight it to prevent a bouquet of mildew in their vino, and even pharmaceutical companies demur from marketing earthy-tasting medicines. A groundbreaking study on the composition and formation of geosmin aspires to solve that problem. In Chubeza’s boxes, you will savor the geosmin in our beets, the secret ingredient to their earthy taste.