Walking into the entrance of Copper Lane Café & Provisions in the Village at Northstar, a few wooden heart-shaped candles with several wicks greet people with warm and welcoming scents. The candles, aptly named Tahoe Candles, embody the memories of Tahoe.
Tahoe Candles of various sizes are pleasant to look at, the bigger ones a little heavy to hold. I pick up one that has nine wicks in it, weighing about 5 pounds. It’s of the Tahoe Love variety, giving off the scent of lavender driftwood. A smaller, heart-shaped candle called Mountain Air contains the scents of frosted juniper, connecting me to memory of a quiet powder day in the back country or on the slopes. Both smell like Tahoe — clean, fresh and vibrant. Then I pick up the Lazy Sunday Morning cinnamon chai candle and it smells like being outside on a crisp fall day bundled up with a thermos of warmness out among the golden aspens.
“The first person who bought my candle was a widow and I also found how Tahoe mended her heart and helped her. That showed me that this is more than just a candle, it’s a story. It’s a connection that brings you back to the memory of this place.” –Scott Swanson
This new candle company is the creation of Tahoe resident Scott Swanson, who moved to the area in June 2020. He enjoys snowboarding, hiking and being outdoors and always had an affinity to Tahoe. In 2017, he unexpectedly lost his wife of 30 years and decided he needed a fresh start. He was also given the opportunity to work remotely in his day job of business development and made the move to Tahoe.
Shortly after Swanson moved into his place in Northstar, a friend gave him a neat housewarming gift — a multi-wick candle in a blue ceramic bowl. He loved it so much that when it burned down to the bottom, he rewicked it and used it again. It got him thinking about what he could do to showcase his love for Tahoe and his late wife and came up with the idea of Tahoe Candles.
“I realized I could do this as a side hustle,” Swanson says.
He registered the Tahoe Candles domain, became active on Instagram and started using the tagline: “Find your heart in Tahoe.”
He decided to build these candles in rough, wooden heart-shaped bowls that have a certain rustic, cozy, forest feel to them while subliminally portraying the beauty and adventure that encompasses the Tahoe lifestyle. He walked down from his ski-in ski-out condo at Northstar to Copper Lane Café & Provisions and asked the owners if they would be interested in carrying Tahoe Candles. They were fully supportive of the idea, so Swanson proceeded by finding a bowl manufacturer in Arkansas and reaching out to Candle Science to help him dial in the scents and generate the all-natural, nontoxic soy wax.
To come up with the scents, Swanson bounced names off of friends and strangers, then ordered 50 different samples and thought about what would go good with his chosen names. He walked around the Village at Northstar and asked people to take a whiff of his product and he got positive responses.
“I’m not a very scientific person. I go on intuition and gut instinct. But I could tell from talking to a handful of people that I was onto something,” Swanson says. “I just did a lot of smelling.”
He launched the business in July 2021 and now has six scents of candles in all different sizes. He hand pours every candle and is getting ready to launch a Coming Home pumpkin chai-scented product.
Swanson believes that his late wife would be thrilled about his new business. When asked what her favorite scent would be, he gets quiet for a second, then says: “I think she’d like the Lazy Sunday Morning. She loved chais.”
According to Swanson, the Copper Lane Café staff told him that the first person who bought a Tahoe Candle was crying at the counter.
“The first person who bought my candle was a widow and I also found how Tahoe mended her heart and helped her. That showed me that this is more than just a candle, it’s a story. It’s a connection that brings you back to the memory of this place,” he says.
Swanson is also proud to be a part of Tahoe Fund’s $1 for Tahoe program.
“I’m passionate about this; I wanted to create a high-quality product that honors my wife and this area. I think the world of [Tahoe Fund]. Before I even launched the company, I wanted to give back to them,” he says. “This is all about sharing something that is close to my heart.”
Tahoe Candles can be found at Copper Lane Café & Provisions in the Village at Northstar, online and will be at the Made in Tahoe Festival on Oct. 9 and 10 at the Village Squaw. | tahoecandles.love
