Our story
Small Batches. Big Love.
A small kitchen, a lot of jars, and one very particular standard for how things should be made.
The mercantile
It started with a love of baking, cooking and gifting.
Five Senses Mercantile is a one-woman kitchen operation. It grew out of the things I have always loved most: baking, cooking, putting up jars for the pantry, and a house that smells warm and clean. What began as a few handmade gifts for friends turned into a shelf full of candles, wax melts, room sprays, seasoned salts, jams, gravies and jarred baking mixes — all made the same way: slowly, in small batches, by hand.
That one woman is me — though I am never really in here alone. My wonderful husband and our two incredible daughters are the heart of this little mercantile. They are the first to taste a new batch, the last to leave the dinner table, and the reason the kitchen light stays on late. Everything I make gets measured against one question: would I be proud to hand this to my own family?
There is no warehouse and no production line. There is a kitchen, a scale, a stack of kraft labels and a very good reason to keep the window open.
The name is the promise. Every product is meant to land on at least one of the five senses — and to be the kind of thing you would be happy to hand to someone you love.
— Krista Staples
From the kitchen
How it’s made
Mix
Every blend and batter base is measured in the kitchen, never bought pre-mixed. That is the whole point.
Pour & pack
Candles are poured by hand. Jars are filled, sealed and wiped down one at a time.
Label
Kraft labels are printed, cut and applied by hand — brown ink and a green leaf.
Tie it up
Jute twine, kraft paper, a little crinkle filler.
The name
Five senses, one mercantile
Five Senses Mercantile is named for the way good handmade things reach you — not just in a flavor, but in a scent, a weight, a sound.
Taste
Jams that set slowly, salts that finish a tomato, gravies built for Sunday dinner.
Scent
Soy candles poured in vanilla, lemongrass and Fraser fir, plus wax melts, room sprays and simmer pots for the rest of the house.
Sight
Kraft stock, deep brown ink and one olive branch. A label you can spot across a market tent.
Touch
Heavy glass, cotton wicks, hand-tied twine. Things that feel worth keeping.
Sound
The crackle of a fresh wick, and the pop of a jar lid opening for the first time.
What we promise
How it should feel
Made by hand
Nothing here is outsourced. The same pair of hands mixes, pours, labels and packs it.
Real ingredients
Flour, sugar, cocoa, real spice, soy wax and cotton wicks. Nothing you would need to look up.
Small on purpose
Batches stay small so the quality does not slip. When something sells out, it comes back when it comes back.
Kraft and twine
Packaging you can recycle, reuse, or keep in the pantry because it looks good.
Local pickup and shipping both available — just ask. Online ordering is coming soon.