Counter Culture collaborated with Bright Black Candles in Durham, NC, to create an exclusive scent inspired by the places where coffee is grown.
Counter Culture collaborated with our friends at Bright Black Candles in Durham, NC, to create an exclusive scent inspired by the places where coffee is grown. Co-founder and CEO Tiffany M. Griffin took us on an incredible scent journey at her beautiful storefront and candle manufacturing space to guide us to a candle that felt like it represented who we are. After landing on something beautiful and authentic, we connected with Tiffany to dive deeper into who Bright Black is and why scent storytelling is so important.
To start, can you share a bit about Bright Black’s mission and what inspired you to create the brand?
Tiffany: At Bright Black, our mission is to use scent as a medium for storytelling. Scent is arguably our most powerful sense—you remember 35% of what you smell, but only 5% of what you see and 2% of what you hear. Scent is directly connected to emotion and memory and can be harnessed for connection, well-being, community care, and, of course, storytelling.
Co-founder and COO Dariel Heron crafting a Bright Black candle at their shop in Durham, NC.
The brand was born out of both love and necessity. My husband and I started Bright Black in 2019 as a way to reframe the stories often told about Blackness. We wanted to offer something sensory and embodied—scents that mean something, cultivate curiosity, and pave the way for us to hear each other and learn from each other. Each of our fragrances is inspired by the people, places, and movements that shape our culture—from Harlem’s creative energy to Durham’s resilience.
As a trained social psychologist and former Federal policymaker, I’ve always been passionate about systems change and stories. Bright Black is my way of pairing art with social impact—using scent to spark dialogue and to collectively imagine (and co-create!) the world we'd like to live in.
How do you see Bright Black’s values aligning with Counter Culture’s, and how did that connection come through in this collaboration?
At our core, both Bright Black and Counter Culture are rooted in intentionality—in doing business as a force for good, honoring the people and places that make our work possible, and creating and sharing products made with clean, thoughtful inputs.
Counter Culture’s commitment to ethical sourcing, transparency, and education deeply aligns with how we approach scent. Every scent we design is created to tell a story—to illuminate the human hands, histories, and ecosystems behind everyday experiences. That’s exactly what Counter Culture does with coffee.
In AWAKENING, that alignment came alive! The scent is inspired by the lush, highland regions where coffee is grown—places like Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Kenya—and by the deep sensory ritual of that first morning pour. It’s grounded, rich, and alive with possibility.
For both of us, this collaboration is about more than a product. It’s about connection—between maker and grower, between story and scent, between intention and impact.
Bright Black candles are known for their intentional scent stories. Can you describe your approach to developing a scent narrative and why that storytelling element is so important to your process?
For me, scent is language. It’s memory, emotion, and story—all in one.
When I develop a new scent, I start not with the notes, but with the narrative. I ask: what story needs to be told? What feeling or place or truth are we trying to honor? Then I begin crafting a scent that embodies that essence.
My process is layered—it involves research, reflection, and imagination. I explore the textures, landscapes, and emotions connected to the story, and I translate those ideas into scent through ingredients that carry both symbolic and sensory weight. A note of vetiver might represent grounding or ancestral wisdom; a touch of citrus might capture new beginnings.
The storytelling is essential because scent bypasses logic and speaks directly to memory and emotion. When someone lights a Bright Black candle, we want them to feel the story—to experience not just a fragrance, but a connection.
In a world that moves quickly, our scents are invitations to slow down, breathe deeply, and remember that stories can be told through every sense.
Specifically, can you tell us about how the process unfolded while creating Awakening with the Counter Culture team? How did the scent direction take shape, and did anything about the collaboration surprise you?
Creating AWAKENING with the Counter Culture team was an exchange between two worlds that value craft, culture, and care in equal measure. We both knew that we wanted something deeper, more nuanced and more exciting than a typical coffee candle. So we began with the story, the values and the aspirations of Counter Culture. After an initial meeting with the team, the idea of "the highlands" came to mind. Inspired by my travels to Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Costa Rica, and Brazil, as well as Counter Culture's commitment to ethical practices across the coffee supply chain, I thought it would be so cool to design a scent that paid tribute to where coffee begins—the altitude, the global community of growers who make it possible. I also wanted the scent to feel warm and comforting so that folks could envision using it alongside their morning (or afternoon!) cup of coffee in ritual.
From there, I went into researching the most common types of coffee grown in the regions that Counter Culture sources from, as well as what companion plants typically grow in those areas. I also delved into the practices that smallholder farmers often employ around their crops and craft.
Bright Black owners Dariel and Tiffany Griffin.
The scent direction took shape through deep conversation and experimentation. I think I designed about eight scents before identifying the four I wanted to share with the Counter Culture team. One of them ended up being close, but we all agreed that we wanted a bit more warmth to come through, so I used that scent as my base, tweaked it a bit more, and came up with a few additional versions. I sent those to the team, and everyone was in agreement that the scent now known as AWAKENING was the winner!
We built layers that mirror the coffee journey—earthy, rich base notes that honor soil and altitude; warm middle tones that evoke roasted coffee and sunlight; and bright, invigorating top notes that signal possibility and new beginnings. By the end, AWAKENING became more than a scent. It became an homage to process and place—to slowing down, paying attention, and remembering that everything we create carries a lineage of love and light.
What do you love most about Awakening? And why do you think it makes a great gift for the holidays?
What I love most about AWAKENING is how alive it feels—it captures that quiet, sacred moment between stillness and possibility. The scent opens warm and grounded, then lifts—just like that first inhale of coffee in the morning. It’s earthy yet bright, comforting yet energizing. It reminds you that every new day is an invitation to begin again. I also love that the scent is transportive. You FEEL the warmth of the highlights, the transcendent nature of mountainous, coffee-growing regions.
Bright Black owners Dariel Heron and Tiffany M. Griffin
To me, AWAKENING is the perfect holiday gift because it’s both sensory and incredibly meaningful. It’s a reminder to slow down, savor the moment, and honor the simple rituals that connect us—like lighting a candle, sharing a cup of coffee, or reflecting on the year that’s passed. It's a comforting scent, a hopeful scent, a scent that honors the past and looks to the possibilities not yet tapped in the future. It's seriously just an incredibly beautiful scent.
Gifting this candle is like gifting intention—a way to say, “Here’s a little light, a little grounding, and a little renewal for the season, the year, the times ahead.”
__
Thank you, Tiffany, Dariel, and the rest of the team at Bright Black for this beautiful candle!
