Forget expensive perfumes. When it comes to arousing men with scents, lavender, pumpkin pie, doughnuts, and black licorice top the chart. Break out the sweet stuff, my friends, and your men will respond.

Folk wisdom suggests that various aromas are sexually enticing, says Dr. Alan Hirsch of The Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation. Because no data previously existed on this very topic, Hirsch set out to investigate the effects of 30 odors on penile blood flow. What he found was that each odor produced an increase in flow in each of his 31 subjects. But some odors, and some combination of odors, increased arousal more than others. Here are the winners.

• Lavender and pumpkin pie together increased the median penile blood flow by 40 percent.
  
  

• Doughnuts and black licorice increased arousal by 31.5 percent.
  
  

• Pumpkin pie and doughnuts: 20 percent.
  
  

• Orange: 19.5 percent.
  
  

Some loser scents include buttered popcorn which came in at nine percent and cranberry with a low two percent.

What will you be serving your man tonight?