Watch: Is This The Biggest Candle In New Hampshire Or Concord?

CONCORD, NH — The owner of CandleTree Soy Candles in Downtown Concord thinks he has the largest soy candle in New Hampshire.

The candle, a minion, is about 500 ounces and was produced by Ross Mingarelli, like a lot of things in life, quite by accident. Earlier this year, he made another large candle and donated it to Concord Hospital. But he found that he missed it and decided to create another one.

So, he decided to start mixing his lemon blueberry scent, one of his most popular flavors. The process takes a lot of time. Once one layer is done, it needs to cool. Then, the next layer is poured in and that has to cool. And so on. The candles have four wicks and take all day to create, he said.

As Mingarelli was looking at it after it was created, he realized it looked just like a minion from "Despicable Me" and the Minion movies. So, he started searching the Internet for a hat and goggles, found some, and ordered them. When they were delivered, poof, it became a minion. Then, Mingarelli started thinking: What about other characters? Sure. He is currently working on a Batman candle. Captain America is on the list, too, and maybe a troll.

"It's all about certain vibrant colors, too," he said. "It's going to be a lot of fun building on these themed, 500-ounce candles."

Mingarelli said his huge candles, he believed, were the largest in New Hampshire, certainly Concord. He looked around the web to see if he could find large candles in the state and was not able to find any this big.

The minion sells for $795.95.

Mingarelli has been creating candles for about four years. He stumbled into it, again, by accident, after trying to find something to do during the winter when his tree business, another job he loved, slowed down. In January, he broke his arm on the job — making it clear to him that he had to find something else to do, too.

Mingarelli thought first about woodworking which would be a natural fit due to all the wood he has and his experience with trees. But then, he checked out candling — and found the process to be more creative.

Mingarelli started with bland white candles in Mason jars to get the hang of it. But then, he began to mix colors and designs, and it really became artistic.

"After about a year, I really became good at what I was doing," he said. "And then, I ventured into the square glass jars … you see a lot of swirls and marbling going on … I hand stir every candle … I put a lot of artistic passion into each one."

Walking into his shop on North Main Street, next door to the alley off Low Avenue, customers cannot help but smell all the different scents.

"I don't really notice it much now, I'm used to it," Mingarelli said.

CandleTree also stocks seasonal flavors all year round so if a customer wants lilac in winter or cinnamon apple, a fall scent, in the summer, Mingarelli will have it. There's customizing, too, and some customers will request certain swirl colors and scents. He added that for some candles and customers, it is like a café — if he has the scent and the wax and you give him an hour, Mingarelli can create the candle.

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Mingarelli started a delivery service and ran specials on orders to keep sales going. It helped him get through. Mingarelli said he was grateful for customers continuing to support him and CandleTree.

Now that he has reopened, he is dealing with all the same things other stores have to do to stem the spread of the coronavirus — limited customers inside, disinfectant, cleaning as well as making sure he has all the popular scents in stock, and now, 500-ounce candles, too.

For the future, expansion, too, might be possible.

"The best part of my candle business is it happened by accident … there was no planning," he said. "I know, for a fact, that I was meant to make candles. As I get a little older, I'm going to slowly ween out of my tree business and be doing my candle business, full-time. It's going to be fun to see where it takes me."

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube channel.