Name: Michael Grey

Job: Founder & co-owner

Where: Palm Beach Collection

Why is it important?

We are manufacturers of mid to high-end home-fragrance products; everything from candles to body wash. Not only is coffee good to drink, but I use it to reset my sense of smell when smelling different perfumes. It’s similar to the way a sorbet is used to cleanse the pallet in a meal.

It’s not a scientific or proven way of clearing the palette, but it definitely works.

When I smell something, I’m looking for the different notes within the fragrance, because a fragrance changes as you smell more deeply into it. If you don’t have a neutral spot to work from you miss some of the top and mid notes and only get the base notes. That can be confusing for someone trialling products. The coffee beans set that neutral benchmark, so you’re not smelling one fragrance on top of the other. A lot of our retailers have a small glass of coffee beans next to the products, so someone can pick it up between smelling. It’s quite a common thing to see in stores.

What do your colleagues think?

If you jump online there are all sorts of opinions about this from people in the home-fragrance industry; some people say it doesn’t work for them, others do. It’s a personal thing.

Unusual moment?

I’ve seen and heard of people trying to eat them; it’s not pretty. Also, the coffee does go off so you need to change the beans occasionally. It’s the kick you get at the start when the coffee is new and rich that works for me. That wears off in a couple of weeks.

How much does it cost?

You probably don’t want granulated stuff, but any sort of roasted coffee bean will do. There just has to be a lot of them: just under a cup.