A British company named My Baggage is currently selling bottles of "authentic" air from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to provide Britons overseas with the scent of home.
The 500-millilitre bottle is sold at £25 (around $33). The bottle comes with a cork stopper, for easy use as the recipient can keep opening it up and can take in the aroma, reports CNN.
The business will also take on special orders for certain other UK locations, apart from the four UK countries. As they said they have recently fulfilled an order from a Welshman who ordered a sample of air from the Snowdonia mountain range of northwestern Wales.
Besides that, exclusive limited-edition bottles are also available with air drawn from the London underground or a Norfolk fish and chip store.
In the UK, a quickly evolving new variant of coronavirus has resulted in bans and prohibitions on travel to the country. Which has prompted Britain’s several European neighbours including Canada and Iran to close their doors to travellers from the country. Meaning a significant number of people still overseas will not be able to return any time soon.
Smell of home
My Baggage team, who deals with international removals for relocating British people, says they were encouraged to introduce the bottled air collection after conducting research that linked the human sense of smell to emotional memories.
"We wanted to help them [UK residents living abroad] reconnect with home and we know from published research that our sense of smell is very evocative when it comes to emotions," a spokesman for the company said.
"By allowing recipients to take a deep breath of the air from their home country we're hoping to ease homesickness and help them settle into their new life, wherever that may be." He further added.
The vast number of orders, according to My Baggage, come from people that purchase bottles as presents for friends or relatives living overseas.
Four years ago, a company named Aethear started selling 580ml bottles of British fresh air to buyers from polluted Chinese cities.
