There is one scent that almost every Vietnamese person recognises before they can name it. It travels in the bowl of broth in the morning, in the stick of incense on a death anniversary, in the medicine jar grandmother kept above the kitchen. Cinnamon is like that, familiar to the point where people usually pass it by, until the day it appears in a quiet room and suddenly takes all the attention.
A cinnamon candle smells warm, lightly spiced at the opening and turning sweet later on. The spice arrives first, like biting a piece of dried cinnamon bark; then comes the dry wood of the bark itself; and last a little sweetness that stays a very long time. Those three strokes travel together, so the scent has depth and is still light; sit beside it a long while and it remains easy to be with.
Why does cinnamon smell so familiar
We think most of it is memory. Cinnamon came into the Vietnamese kitchen very early, in the pho pot, in the braised pork on cold days, in the packet of herbal medicine. It travels in the life of the spirit too, in the incense lit on the full moon. When a scent already sits in memory like that, every meeting again feels like coming home, and people feel warm before they can work out why.
Another part comes from the sense of heat. Cinnamon belongs to the warm spice family, so on crisp days a room with cinnamon in it is usually described as thicker, more sheltered from draughts, even though the temperature has not changed at all. That is why many people keep a jar of cinnamon candle beside where they sit in winter.
Cinnamon in a cinnamon bark candle jar
With the range poured straight into a length of cinnamon bark, you hear two layers of scent at once. The first comes from the cup itself, because it is real bark that has been sun-dried; the second comes from the soy wax blended by ZUNGZA inside. Before lighting, the scent is very faint, only enough for you to notice when you come close. When the flame warms the wall of the cup, the bark opens up and the scent fills out over time.
We keep three main strokes and stop there. A candle jar does not need to tell too many things at once; it only needs to tell one scene truly, and leave the rest to whoever is sitting in the room.
A few questions you often send us
Is cinnamon too strong
At a distance of one to two metres, our cinnamon sits at a medium level, clear enough to notice while still letting you smell the coffee or the rice in the house. If you would like it lighter still, burning it for about thirty minutes and then putting it out is enough for a small room.
Which room does cinnamon suit
The living room and the working corner are the two places we find it suits best, because cinnamon keeps a space warm without making you sleepy. In the bedroom, many people like to light it about half an hour before sleep and then put it out, leaving the scent that lingers.
Does the jar smell before it is lit
Yes, but very faintly. Dried cinnamon bark holds its scent well, so even with the lid on and standing on a shelf, you can still hear a little when you come close. Many people keep the cup after the wax is gone for this reason too.
If you would like to go further, read more about cinnamon bark candles, about cinnamon cup, or browse the VO QUE LAM candle.