17 Fascinating Facts You Probably Never Knew About Yankee Candles

There were once Yankee Candle PUZZLES?!

1. Yankee Candle launched in the 1970s with just over a dozen scents.

Yankee Candle

Some of the OGs: French Vanilla, Cinnamon, Spiced Apple, Balsam, Hollyberry, Blueberry, Bayberry, Cranberry, Orange & Clove, Strawberry, Tangerine, and Peppermint.

2. Here's a look at how the jars have evolved over time:

Yankee Candle

3. They introduced an unscented candle at one point...and it didn't exactly catch on.

Yankee Candle

The candle, called Storm Watch, was white and was released in April 1997, after customers requested an unscented candle to burn when their power went out. People liked the name, but were disappointed that it didn't have a fragrance. So the company re-released it, this time as a light blue scented candle.

4. Yankee Candle occasionally produces noncandle products, and made scented jigsaw puzzles at one point.

Yankee Candle

The puzzles had 300 pieces, including a couple that were jar-shaped. They were available in a number of top-selling fragrances, with images that were somewhat related to the scent.

There are a few on eBay, if you're interested.

5. The company launches about 50 new scents each year, and choosing them is quite a process.

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First, the company works with prominent international fragrance houses, who submit about 1,500 or so new fragrance ideas. Then they work with the fragrance houses and global trend researchers to identify big trends in food, fragrance, lifestyle, home decor, and color, which helps them decide which fragrances from the list should make the cut. (For example, Honey Lavender Gelato was inspired by three trends: artisanal honey, gelato as an ice cream alternative, and foods that combine unique, unexpected flavors. Sicilian Lemon was inspired by the popularity of lemon in fine fragrances and Mediterranean home decor.) They also take employee suggestions.

Then each scent has to go through the internal "Fragrance Committee," a special role within the company. They smell the candles cold and while burning, and provide feedback. After that, the candles go to the "Home Burners" — a group of Yankee Candle employees who take the candles home, burn them, and give them a numerical score in a number of areas. And then there is more refinement of the candle's color and label before it is eventually released.

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6. In 2017, #HipsterYankeeCandleScents began trending on Twitter...and the company loved it so much, they created four of the candles for the Twitter users who suggested them.

Yankee Candle Company

The winners? Flannel No. 5, You've Probably Never Heard of This Before — Citrus, Brooklyn & Vinyl, and I Smelled It Before It Was Main-Stream and River. (The actual fragrances were Mountain Lodge, Honey Clementine, Midsummer’s Night, and Meadow Showers, respectively.)

7. But the original hipster candles are these "Cannikins."

Yankee Candle Company

You know...candles in a can.

8. In March 2016, a Reddit user posted a photo of a special candle he'd made after his wife died: He melted down all of the candles she'd never finished burning and layered them in an empty True Rose candle jar (her all-time favorite).

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"I thought that making this candle would be a good way to remember her, and the special time that we will burn it will allow us to 'smell' her, or have the house smell like her," he wrote. "This project was a way to help me and my kids cope with our loss. It is a part of our grieving process."

Yankee Candle employees saw the post and worked with the man to create personalized True Rose candles featuring a photograph of his wife, which he was then able to give to friends and family as a way to remember her.

😭

9. It takes about 10 hours to make a single jar candle in the factory.

Yankee Candle

10. The company produces 75 million jar candles each year.

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And they use 64 million pounds of wax annually.

11. The Yankee Candle factory actually smells pretty terrible.

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Turns out, having so many strong fragrances blended together doesn't result in one amazing super fragrance! Yankee Candle vice president of manufacturing Jim Scott told Racked that employees get used to the factory smell...except on days when the (now-discontinued) Mmmm, Bacon! candle is in production. Apparently, you never get used to the smell of the Mmmm, Bacon! candle.

12. Yankee Candles have an uneven appearance because they contain so much fragrance oil.

Yankee Candle

According to Racked, the candles look blotchy because company founder Michael Kittredge used so much fragrance oil to perfect the scents, the candles' wax didn't fully absorb it. "In the beginning, Kittredge had to convince customers that there wasn't anything wrong with the mottled-looking candles; now that's a Yankee Candle brand signature."

13. Here's a look at the company's original logo (which debuted in 1976) + an early sketch of it:

Yankee Candle

14. The best-selling fragrance of all time is Balsam and Cedar.

Yankee Candle

It's a mix of balsam, aromatic cedar wood, and juniper berry.

15. Customers often bring in their last bits of candle wax to Yankee Candle stores and ask for help identifying the fragrances.

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"Our employees are always up to speed on current and new fragrances and a lot of them are able to nail down the exact candle based on the color and scent," a representative for the company told me.

16. In 2014, a Tumblr post about the Mountain Lodge candle — aka the "boyfriend candle" — went viral and the candle became the second most popular Yankee Candle.

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There was so much demand for it, the company began producing it internationally, too.

17. Speaking of boyfriends, there is a Yankee Candle fragrance called MAN TOWN.

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This is 100% real, and every man I know is getting one for his birthday this year.

NBC / Via youtu.be