France has given the world fragrant perfume and very stinky cheeses, but the country's latest and greatest olfactory contribution may be a pill that makes farts smell like chocolate.
The sweet-smelling product is the creation of Christian Poincheval, a 65-year-old inventor who hails from the village of Gesvres and looks like Santa Claus' younger hippie brother.
Poincheval sells the pills online at pilulepet.com for around $12.50 for 60 capsules. The web page promises the chocolate pills will "allow the user to fart through to the New Year in grand style."
The chocolate pills are a new addition to Poincheval's odorific arsenal, which also includes pills that make farts smell like roses or violets, and fart-reducing powder for pets.
As with most new creations, necessity was the mother of this invention.
He was eating dinner with friends in 2006 when he realized the group had caused a gas attack at the restaurant.
"Our farts were so smelly after the copious meal, we nearly suffocated," he told the Telegraph. "The people at the table next to us were not happy. Something had to be done."
It was the start of a long period of stinky researching, during which Poincheval made some interesting discoveries.
"When we were vegetarian we noticed that our gas smelt like vegetables, like the odor from a cow pat, but when we started eating meat, the smell of the flatulence became much disagreeable," he said, according to TheLocal.Fr. "We needed to invent something that made them smell nicer"
Poincheval claims his pills not only create chocolate-scented farts, they reduce intestinal gas and bloating thanks to ingredients like vegetable coal, fennel, seaweed, plant resin, bilberry, and cacao zest.
Since people tend to stuff their bellies during the holidays, Poincheval figures his chocolate fart pills should be stuffed in stockings.
"Some buy them because they have problems with flatulence and some buy them as a joke to send to their friends. Christmas always sees a surge in sales," he said, according to IBTimes.co.uk.
