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Vegan baker Filitsa Gray was eating dairy-free buttercream when it happened. One afternoon in March, her sense of taste and smell vanished. At first she thought it was strange; by her own admission her nose had been so sensitive she could smell things through walls, but then, when fatigue set in, it dawned on her that there might be a bigger problem.
After five years in the vegan cakes business, Covid-19 struck; she couldn’t taste or smell anything for months. After a negative test, her symptoms progressed, and parosmia – a distorted sense of smell – hit in July. Chickpeas began to taste like chargrilled fish skins, water took on a tinge of diluted bleach, porridge was like eating plastic carrier bags and chocolate began to smell like faeces. Despite this, her business had to keep functioning.