CANDLE SPOTLIGHT: Pumpkin Caramel Latte

Products: candle
Area used in: living Room
Time Period: end of October - December

Description: Gather with friends and celebrate the season with this warm, rich blend of creamy pumpkin, spiced caramel and sweet cream

Missing note: "rich pralines"

So my bf and I started a bit of tradition awhile back that we'd have a candle that we'd burn specifically during the weekends in the morning/early afternoon. It started back when Espresso Bar made its debut and we've continued this trend ever since. This fall we decided to give EB a break and try some other savory gourmand scents for our weekend morns together; we had Apple Crumble in September and Cider Donuts in October. I wondered what could be our post-Halloween pre-Thanksgiving weekend morning scent.  I thought about Spiced Cider or Apple Ale but I wanted to branch away from the apple scents. There was Harvest Coffee but what was the point of getting that when I had quite a few EBs left. There was one other option; Id have to venture into uncharted territory..the realm of pumpkin scents! That option was...PUMPKIN CARAMEL LATTE!!!!

*DUN DUN DUUUUNNN

I've always avoided PCL like the plague. It was the perfect amalgam of scents/notes I strongly and vehemently dislike - spiced pumpkin, ooey-gooey caramel and rich vanilla...an evil trifecta of aromas! And ER'YBODY agreed, whether they liked PCL or not, that it was super duper sugar high inducing diabetes causing sweet. That in and of itself kept me away like a vampire to garlic. Then when it made its grand appearance with the rest of its pumpkin brethren back in August, reviewers were saying that it wasn't as overwhelmingly sweet this time around and that there was, believe it or not, a slight but actual coffee latte kick to it. I decided to believe the hype and I bought it. I lit it not too long ago and much to my surprise, I actually found myself liking it!!!

Performance-wise PCL has been a dream. It's past mid-range now and it's still goin strong. Nice thick wicks, mushroom tops, high dancing flames, deep even wax pool..yada yada yada ...A+ MATERIAL! Let's get to the real...the throw! OHHH BOY, THAT THROW IS A KILLA! MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT!!! PCL will punch you in the face, put yo ass in a chokehold and not let go! And I do mean all this in a good way. This is how a BBW candle's throw is supposed to be - strong without being headache inducing and fills a room while remaining guest friendly and not stifling. And PCL is the only other candle that I've burned besides Apple Crumble where the smell lingered for hours after I blew it out. One night my bf and I had it burning for hours and then blew it out that night before we left to go somewhere. We came back and we could still smell it in the air. We woke up the next day and once again we could still smell it!!!

Now onto the scent. Whoever said that PCL's sweetness was toned down this year and that it had a latte smell it to it finally LIED!!! Well I'll take that back. On cold throw, it isn't as potent as it has been and I did get a slight chai-like kick to it. After lighting it however, it was the same ol cloying PCL. You get a heavy, frothy, milky vanilla cream with a dollop of rich ooey-gooey caramel; you get more caramel than anything else and it's potent! There's no pumpkin whatsoever and there's no coffee/latte which is a little disappointing. There's a slight spice note, like nutmeg mixed with a little allspice and brown sugar but it practically disappears once the candle is lit. But the crazy thing is the spice note lingers in the air after you blow it out. If I were naming this, I would take pumpkin out of the title and simply called it Caramel Latte or Spiced Caramel (or just Spiced Caramel Latte) but it is the "pumpkin" that makes it sound seasonal and draws folks in to buy it. My girlfriend/BFF detests pumpkin scents with a virulent white hot passion. However when she heard about the lack of pumpkin in PCL, she got very excited and bought some wallflower bulbs. Now she's head over heels in love with the scent! It is a surprise hit!

PCL is the Melissa McCarthy of BBW scents. Large and in charge in every way and you'd think she/it would be obnoxious but she/it is sooo sweet and endearing that you just wanna hang out with her/ it all the time. I honestly did not think I would ever like this scent but in the end I did wind up liking it a lot. Is it buy in bulk worthy? For me not really, I like it but not enough to buy several and stock up. For me it's a one time only deal. However for those who enjoy the sweet/bakery/gourmand scents, this should be a stock up scent and for most, it usually is. I can see why people dig this scent; it's sweet, warm, cozy and enticing. But I can also see how and why people would avoid it cuz it is cloying and overwhelming. I personally think that PCL is worth trying at least once. And it's a BBW staple, so it'll be around for several falls to come.