We Have a Mystery

[Misschief]

Backstory: we live in a ground level basement suite and my kitchen is also my soaping area. I keep it as clean as I can and anything open (sugar bowl, butter dish) is moved away from the area when soaping. I've recently been doing a lot of making and use some very fine powders (SCI in particular). When doing my soaping dishes, they're rinsed out and then washed after the regular dishes have been washed. Mugs are in the cabinet above the kitchen counter (that could be relevant).

This morning, I made myself a cup of coffee as usual, had a sip and almost gagged. It tasted, and smelled, soapy. My husband had a sip and nearly spit it out (he held it until he could get to the sink and did spit it out). I made a second cup of coffee using a fresh cup out of the cupboard. Same thing. I decided to switch to tea, using a third mug from the cupboard. Again, it tasted soapy. Now, I'm having a cup of tea using my cup and saucer, which was in the buffet in the living room. I'm still tasting the soapy taste but I can't decide if it's because it IS soapy tasting or if it's because I have that taste at the back of my throat now.

John's cup of coffee tastes like coffee (he uses a different kind of mug than I do, for one thing; his have a shiny glaze, mine are a matte finish although the last cup of coffee was made in one of his mugs with a shiny glaze). We've checked all the components. The coffee smells like coffee; the sugar tastes like sugar; the milk tastes like milk; the pinch of salt I add to my coffee tastes like salt; the water tastes like... water). Yesterday's two cups of coffee were just fine. What the heck is going on??

 

[GemstonePony]

This may be a silly question, but was the cabinet with the mugs accessed at any time within an hour of working with SCI?
Here's my theory (but this isn't a mystery movie, so take it with a grain of salt):
Powders can linger in the air a surprising amount of time. You are on the ground floor of the building, and I imagine as it's getting colder you have heat supplied to your apartment. However, most apartments aren't airtight within the building, and collectively cold air sinks and heat rises, so your apartment would have a slow flow of cold air, pushing your warm air and anything in it up. In this case towards the mugs. If anyone accessed the cabinet, the soapy air would have been sucked into the cabinet, where, without the cool updraft, it settled into mugs and whatever else.
In any case, I would wash the contents of the cabinet, and perhaps look into a small air filter that can filter out the SCI in the future?

 

[Misschief]

That could explain it but.... The last batches I made were on Saturday. We both had coffee on Sunday and Monday and all was fine.

Right now, I have all the mugs soaking in a sink full of vinegar water with a bit of dish soap (just a bit). I will also be looking into a small air filter; thta's a good idea.

 

[GemstonePony]

Huh. Somebody smarter than I am will have to figure it out then.

 

[earlene]

The first thought I had was do you both need to get tested for CoVid, but if soaking the mugs & cups (& perhaps the coffee carafe as well) gets rid of the taste, then, probably not.

Keep us updated!

 

[Obsidian]

I soap in the kitchen too and the last batch sat on the table next to hubbys coffee cup and he tasted FO for two days.
Asked me to do something different for now on when I soap.

 

[Misschief]

I soap in the kitchen too and the last batch sat on the table next to hubbys coffee cup and he tasted FO for two days.
Asked me to do something different for now on when I soap.

That's kind of where I'm leaning as I realized later in the day that my coffee smelled like Love Spell FO. But 4 mugs from a closed cupboard kind of floored us. My husband has cleaned the coffee maker out and we've put in a new filter; all the mugs have been soaked in a vinegar/detergent wash and rinsed well in hot water. In addition, John's suggested that I cover the coffee maker with a tea towel from now on when I'm "making". Hopefully, my coffee tomorrow will taste like cofffe.

@earlene, that did cross my mind but isn't one of the Covid symptoms a LACK of smell/taste? That was certainly NOT the case here. We could taste it and smell it, quite strongly. And the coffee itself smelled pretty darned good in the cannnister.

 

[Obsidian]

Any chance the mugs were washed with the container you measure your FO in? Sometimes I don't think to rinse my little glass out before putting it in the wash.
I've been trying hard to remember to rinse it out well in the bathroom sink so I don't spread FO flavor around the kitchen.

Lack of smell and taste is a covid symptom but its being found some people start tasting gasoline as a first symptom.

 

[Catscankim]

Kinda had the same problem. I narrowed it down to the sink. I think my problem was the sink i washed soapy dishes in, then put my regular dishes in. I washed it out, maybe not good enough.

edit, but my problem was plastic dishes and coffee cups that i take to work.

 

[Misschief]

Ok, I think I've narrowed it down. I made 3 batches of foaming bath mousse on the weekend and Love Spell was the last one. Because 4 out of 8 mugs in the cupboard tasted and smelled of Love Spell, I'm thinking that I may have whipped it a little too aggressively while adding the FO; it probably dispersed into the air and settled on the dishes in the cupboard. That cabinet is opened regularly and it's in the same corner where I plug in the Kitchen Aid (my kitchen has 2 electrical outlets and the other one is behind the fridge so there isn't much choice). I think, from here on in, I'll have to place a towel over the KA when mixing in my fragrances.

ETA: today's cup of coffee tastes pretty darned good, I must say!

 

[Misschief]

Any chance the mugs were washed with the container you measure your FO in? Sometimes I don't think to rinse my little glass out before putting it in the wash.
I've been trying hard to remember to rinse it out well in the bathroom sink so I don't spread FO flavor around the kitchen.

Lack of smell and taste is a covid symptom but its being found some people start tasting gasoline as a first symptom.

We need a Hmmmm emoji.

 

[Microchick]

Is it possible that the mugs didn't get a thorough rinse in the dishwasher, provided you use one and they were all washed together? This has happened to me.

 

[Misschief]

Is it possible that the mugs didn't get a thorough rinse in the dishwasher, provided you use one and they were all washed together? This has happened to me.

We have two dishwashers.... my husband and me.
Apart from that, the taste was even in mugs that hadn't been used in months.

 

[dibbles]

We need a Hmmmm emoji.

I wonder if you will ever figure this one out!

 

[Misschief]

I wonder if you will ever figure this one out!

LOL Didin't even think to look. Can you tell I don't use emojis very often?