what "small batch" actually means

"Small batch" is on nearly every candle sold. It isn't a protected term and it doesn't have a number attached, so it can mean forty candles or forty thousand. Here's what it means when I use it.

The actual number

I pour to order, four times a year. A batch is whatever people bought that time — usually somewhere between a hundred and a hundred and fifty items across seven scents. One scent at a time, one session each.

Every candle is poured, cured, trimmed, labelled and boxed by me. There is no team. If you message me, it's me.

Why it changes the candle

Three things, and none of them are romantic.

Fresher fragrance. Fragrance oil degrades. A candle poured last week smells more like itself than one that's been in a warehouse for eight months. Pouring to order means nothing sits.

Proper curing. Soy needs a week or two after pouring for the fragrance to bind into the wax. Rush it and the candle smells strong cold and weak lit. Small numbers mean I can actually wait.

Nothing gets past me. Every jar is one I've looked at. A wet spot, a wick off-centre, a label a millimetre out — I see all of them, because I'm the one holding it.

What it costs you

Honesty about the downsides, since everyone else skips this bit.

You wait. Orders go out a couple of weeks after the shop closes, not next day. Things sell out and don't come back until the next drop. The shop is shut most of the year. If you want a candle this afternoon, a supermarket is a better answer than I am.

How to tell whether anyone means it

Ask three questions of any brand that says small batch:

• Can you buy it every day of the year? Then it isn't batched, it's stocked.
• Do they say who pours it? Vagueness usually means a contract manufacturer.
• Does anything ever sell out? If it never does, someone's holding a lot of stock somewhere.

None of that makes bigger brands bad. Plenty of them make lovely candles. It just means "small batch" on the label is telling you less than you think.

I pour four times a year in Birmingham. When a batch is gone it's gone, and nothing gets restocked in between. That's not a marketing tactic — it's just how much one person can make.