Illinois Is Adding A New Ingredient To Their Salt This Season

If you're a fan of The Office, you know that there are three key aspects to life: Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. And apparently, Illinois is taking that mantra pretty seriously – well, at least the beets part.

This winter, the state is actually adding beet juice to their rock salt for roads. According to a Facebook post from the Illinois State Police, beet juice is being added because it's "a less corrosive alternative to liquid calcium chloride."

With this, cars will be less eroded on the bottom and colder ice can be melted. It's been a pretty mild Winter so far (even though it's technically still Fall) but anyone who's lived in the Midwest knows that those temps can drop real quick.

It's a neat alternative, one that I had never heard of. Dwight Schrute would be proud. My question is more so just...what is this salt going to smell like?