A $205, small-batch candle that smells like a San Marzano tomato vine is the latest extension of Carbone Fine Food's push beyond the jar — and its second consecutive August partnership with New York skincare and fragrance brand MALIN+GOETZ. The limited-edition tomato supercandle launches August 17, 2026, and arrives one year after the debut version sold out in under two weeks.
The Product Details
The 27-oz., three-wick candle is built around MALIN+GOETZ's tomato fragrance — originally developed in 2020 and sourced from the San Marzano leaf cut at a master perfumer's estate in France. Fragrance notes layer basil, green ivy, lavender, and mint on top; tomato, mandarin, and petitgrain in the heart; and cedarwood and green pepper at the base. The vegetable wax blend burns up to 80 hours and is housed in a double-walled glass vessel and lid rendered in a custom vine-green colorway — a departure from the tomato-red of last year's edition. Rigid gift packaging carries Carbone's heritage graphics, including an illustration of the brand's Greenwich Village flagship, alongside MALIN+GOETZ typography. The glass vessel is designed to be repurposed as a serving dish or tabletop piece after the final burn.
Why Operators Should Pay Attention
For restaurant and foodservice brands watching how chef-driven companies extend their IP into retail, this collaboration offers a concrete case study. Carbone Fine Food — founded by chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi and anchored by its slow-cooked, Italy-sourced pasta sauces — is using a lifestyle product to reinforce the same sourcing story it tells on the grocery shelf. Mario Carbone frames the candle explicitly in culinary terms: "At Carbone Fine Food, we're passionate about sourcing exceptional tomatoes because great ingredients create lasting experiences." MALIN+GOETZ co-founder Andrew Goetz draws a direct parallel between sauce-making and product craft, noting that simplicity in both fragrance and a perfect tomato sauce only works "if the tomatoes are exceptional, the technique is right, and nothing unnecessary gets in the way."
The collab is timed alongside the expansion of MALIN+GOETZ's broader tomato collection, which launched in July 2026 and includes a tomato hand soap ($20), hand salve ($18), and a smaller 9-oz. candle ($68). That merchandising context matters: the supercandle functions as a premium anchor SKU in a growing category story — the kind of limited, giftable, chef-credentialed product that has proven effective for food and beverage brands building DTC retail presence. For hospitality operators and restaurant groups exploring branded merchandise and consumer packaged goods extensions, the sell-out velocity of the 2025 edition — gone in under two weeks — underscores the demand that a strong culinary brand identity can generate outside the dining room.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
