Mint and tea - green tea and fresh mint. Cool and herbal; the scent of Moroccan mint tea, poured from height into a small glass.
The vessel is the point. Each Tamegroute candle is poured into a piece thrown by hand by the potters of Tamegroute, in the Draa Valley in southern Morocco - local clay, mineral glaze of copper and manganese, fired in wood-burning kilns that are still loaded by hand. The glaze pools and runs unevenly; it thickens at the rim into small dark drips and thins where the heat passed through. No two are alike.
Two colourways. The traditional olive-green, copper-rich and dark. A warmer ochre-yellow, lighter and more honey-toned.
Three sizes - a small single-wick, a wider mid-size, and a large multi-wick. Soy wax, Italian cotton wicks, fragrances composed in Grasse.
In 2003, Saida Kadiri left a career decorating children's bedrooms in Casablanca and started making candles — first for her own house, with whatever pots and pans she had. Two years later her son Omar joined her, and Côté Bougie has been a family business in Marrakech ever since. The candles are hand-poured: soy wax, Italian cotton wicks, recycled glass. The fragrances are composed in Grasse and chosen to read as Morocco — citrus, spice, cedar. The vessels, including the olive-green ceramics of Tamegroute, are made by Moroccan artisans.
