Quitting smoking for good is no easy feat. But forget about nicotine patches or even going cold turkey for that matter – the most effective route to being cigarette-free is sniffing chocolate says a new scientific study.

Yes you read that right – a good old sniff of a chocolate bar has the power to sway you away from a social smoke for good. Or so says the University of Pittsburgh, which recently unveiled that sniffing an aroma you enjoy can help you quit.

The study asked subjects to pick their favourite aroma from an offering of chocolate, vanilla, apple, lemon and peppermint. They were then asked to light a cigarette and hold it in their hands without smoking it. Then subjects were asked to put out the cigarette and sniffed a box that contained either the scent, tobacco or no scent for a full minute. It was after this process was complete that they rated their cigarette craving.

The average craving score just after lighting a cigarette was 82.13. But after sniffing their chosen scent cravings dropped by 23%, compared to the 14% decrease from the group sniffing tobacco and the neutral scent.

“New interventions are urgently needed to help the millions who wish to quit but are unable,” explained Dr Michael Sayette, lead author of the study. “Using pleasant odours to disrupt smoking routines would offer a distinct and novel method for reducing cravings, and our results to this end are promising.” For him it’s directly related to smokers’ being able to have time to process their decisions. “[The method] offers enough time for a smoker to decide to avoid or leave their high-risk situation,” he explains.