
Ah, inspiration! Cire Trudon, in collaboration with Arquiste, created the Mérida* candle to memorialize “…a balmy night described by Empress Carlota of Mexico on her visit to the city of Mérida, Yucatán, in 1865.” Empress Carlota (also known as Charlotte of Belgium) arrived in Mexico as an invader (though we must cast more blame in the direction of her hubby, Archduke Maximilian of Austria/Emperor Maximilian I, and Napoleon III — the instigator of the French invasion of Mexico in 1861 and the one with the daft idea to install Europeans, Carlota and Max, on the “throne” of Mexico. More history later; first, the Mérida candle.
Mérida is an homage to guava. Once a year, I make a large batch of guava jelly for a friend’s birthday present…


