Image provided by KFC U.S.
Editor's Note: KFC U.S. sold out of its firelogs within an hour of their release, proving that the fried chicken scent really is craveable.
Today, Americans can pick up a bucket of fried chicken at KFC and keep the savory sensation going long after the last bite through an 11 Herbs & Spices Firelog. A first for the brand, this limited time offering is exactly as it sounds — a log that, when burned, releases the unmistakable smell of fried chicken.
“At KFC, we have always been proud of our role in bringing loved ones together at the dinner table around a bucket of our world-famous fried chicken,” said Andrea Zahumensky, KFC U.S. CMO. “Now, this winter we’re bringing all the things we love – family, friends and fried chicken – together around the fire with our scented firelog.”
To create the product, KFC U.S. reached out to fragrance house Ungerer, which was responsible for creating the fried chicken scent used in its Extra Crispy Sunscreen and scratch-n-sniff Valentine’s Day cards, and Enviro-Log, which creates firelogs from recycled wax cardboard boxes. It took Stephanie Hakes, a fifth generation family member and the company’s head perfumer, and her team about a week to recreate the exact scent. And then, Enviro-Log founder and president Ross McRoy and his team tried four different versions of the KFC-scented logs before they were satisfied with the final result.
“The minute you open that box, you smell Kentucky Fried Chicken,” said Enviro-log head of PR David Gutierrez.
And, according to scientists, that scent causes a Pavlovian response, making passersby ravenously sniff the air in search of the source.
But humans don’t run for a bouquet of roses or a bed of gardenias when dabbing on perfume, so why do people crave fried chicken when the smell wafts underneath their nose? It has a lot to do with the way our brains are wired, according to International Flavors & Fragrances senior flavorist Dana Gasiorowski.
“The fried chicken aroma not only tells our brains that we’re getting a reward of protein, carbohydrates and nutrients, which are important for survival,” she said. “But the Colonel’s blend of 11 herbs and spices also lights up a very sensitive area of the brain called the amygdala, where emotions are processed, so we crave it as a food source and also as a source of comfort, because it reminds us of family dinners and picnics filled with this lovely warm scent of spices and herbs.”
Gasiorowski, whose IFF career spans more than two decades and is trained to recognize hundreds of scent molecules, specifically points to a study done by Oxford University’s Mikiko Kadohisa, Ph.D., which states that odors “can lead to the recall of emotional memories” and even “influence psychological and physiological states.”
“If you look at the research, the human brain has learned — even as we were inside our mother’s womb — about the correlations of scent to nutritional satisfaction and emotional response,” Gasiorowski said.
In other words, we’ve been craving fried chicken before we were even born, which suggests that KFC’s firelogs might be more than just a quirky promotion. It may even be smart business.
Today, fried chicken falls outside the norm of Ungerer’s everyday fragrance requests, which range from fine fragrances to household cleaners, but, Hakes said, edible scents are always evolving. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before her company’s customers start requesting fried chicken scents like they do vanilla.
“Thirty years ago, if you’d ask someone about vanilla scents in laundry products, they’d tell you you’d lost your mind,” she said. “But now, vanilla-scented Tide is a real product. Who knows? Could fried chicken become the new vanilla? It’s irresistible enough, isn’t it?”
That’s what KFC is banking on. Outside the U.S., markets have developed fried chicken-scented candles, bath bombs, surfboard wax, nail polish and more. Each time, the brand sells out of its products, which Enviro-Log hopes will happen again.
“Obviously we’ve seen pumpkin spice permeate the fall,” Gutierrez said. “Why not fried chicken permeate the winter?”
It has potential, according to scientists.
