Anchor · Mānuka honey
Sweet
Honeyed, vanillic, comforting. The opposite of austere.
The family.
The hardest family to get right and the easiest to oversell. Good NZ sweet candles work in the gourmand register without tipping into bakery-counter — vanilla orchid alongside mānuka honey, beeswax over coconut wax base, a touch of black tea or smoked sugar to dry the finish.
On Mānuka honey.
Mānuka honey on its own is too thick and overwhelming for a candle — the makers who use it well lift it with something dry (tobacco leaf, cardamom, smoked oak) so the sweetness is anchored.
Pairs naturally with
- ·Vanilla orchid
- ·Tobacco leaf
- ·Brown butter
- ·Smoked sugar
- ·Cardamom
Feels like
Tea and toast, fire still going, late afternoon.
3 NZ makers work in this family.
Mt Victoria · Wellington
Hawthorne & Honey
Mānuka-honey-tobacco, vanilla orchid, smoked sugar
Soy-coconut blend · from $48 →
Woolston · Christchurch
Tannery Wax Co
Pure beeswax, lightly-scented beeswax-soy blends
Beeswax · from $28 →
Havelock North · Hawke's Bay
Ahuriri & Orchard
Fig-leaf-blackcurrant, oak-orchard, garden rose
Soy wax · from $52 →