Oddly enough, certain smells of black coffee bring me back (not quite so far) to my young manhood, cradling a hot mug on the conning bridge of a steam-powered ship running along the Med toward Piraeus.
Tobacco has a similar effect -- certain kinds of cigarette smoke flash me into a scene in the woods of Connecticut in early Spring, with snow patches still marking the edges of the clearings, and the river out back in full burble.