I was actually pretty excited about this towel...it absorbs well, drys well, but it has a weird smell to it....? I don't know if its the material used, but yes I tried it straight out of the package, because I'm unsanitary like that, but it had a smell from the very first use. Not a chemical clean smell, but almost a very light rotten smell? VERY light, so I washed it, followed the directionse etc. And it STILL had that very light strange smell. The absorbance is amazing though, it dries fast, ...