Brewed Fresh Daily

The fragrance of coffee is now officially illegal in New York. In making this determination the Environmental Control Board, of New York City, an administrative court of the city's Department of Environmental Protection has found Gillies Coffee Company guilty of polluting because coffee smells like coffee. An inspector responding to a single complaint from someone in the neighborhood smelled coffee outside the coffee company. He found it "annoying" and in violation of NYC 24-141 which prohibits "the emission of air contaminant" The inspector testified that there was no roasting going on. NYC Administrative Law Judge Phyllis J. Roberts stated in her written opinion that the "smell" of coffee comes within the statutory definition of odorous air contaminant defined by 24-104 as "any air contaminant which is released in sufficient concentrations to be detected by the human olfactory sense."