Taper candles are the perfect ones to use to create an ambiance of elegance. You can get tapered candles as scented and unscented. If you want to have a candlelight dinner it is best to use unscented taper candles so that the scent won’t interfere with the food. You will also want to use dripless candles so that you won’t have to worry about wax dripping on your expensive furniture. You can buy the taper candles in a store or online, or you can get really creative and make your own at home.
Taper candles are long and slender and require a candle holder with a small hole in which you insert the end of the candle. They cannot stand on their own like pillar candles and are not enclosed in a jar. A tapered candle can range in length from six to twenty inches, so it is important to have the proper candleholder for the candle to ensure that it won’t tip over. If you don’t have dripless taper candles, you will have to clean the wax from the candleholder and place a doily or cloth underneath the holders.
In pioneer days, taper candles were made from animal fat. The fat was boiled into a substance called tallow. These tapered candles were yellowish in color and were very sooty with smoke coming from the flame. Today a taper candle is made from paraffin wax to make it dripless. Taper candles made from this kind of wax leave very little residue, but they do burn in a mushroom shape. This means that you may have to trim some of the wax from around the wick each time you want to light the candle.
In order to make your own taper candles at home, you first have to heat the wax to a temperature of 145