Calf slobbers might not sound like something you'd want wafting through your living room.
Anyone who's spent much time around cattle knows the real thing is hardly the stuff of fragrant dreams.
But it turns out Calf Slobbers smells downright delicious.
The unusually named candle scent has become a best-seller for two small businesses with deep agricultural roots, winning over customers who grew up around cattle and those whose closest encounter with a cow might have been through a pasture fence.
And while the name might raise eyebrows, the fragrance itself is bringing back memories of grandparents, family kitchens and homemade pies topped with fluffy meringue — which is also sometimes called "calf slobber" because it resembles the white foam that builds up around a calf's mouth when it salivates.
For Jackie Miller Reeves, the woman behind the scent, that's exactly the point.
"It is a very pleasant scent," said Miller Reeves, owner of Rustic Enigma, which produces Calf Slobbers candles and other scented products. "People buy it for the scent."
But they also buy it for the name, the laughter and the memories it brings.
For some customers, Calf Slobbers smells a whole lot like childhood.
A Family Legend
Miller Reeves was visiting with her stepdaughter one day when the younger woman recalled an expression her great-grandfather used whenever the family gathered around a freshly baked pie with meringue.
"You're not going to eat all those calf slobbers, are you?" he would tease the children.
Calf slobbers was his playful name for the meringue piled on top of homemade pies.
Miller Reeves loved the expression.
She also loved the idea of creating a fragrance that would capture the sweetness of meringue while honoring a family memory.
She told Cowboy State Daily she couldn’t take credit for the name, but she could turn it into something people would remember.
That proved more complicated than simply pouring some fragrance oil into melted wax.
Miller Reeves spent about six months experimenting with combinations of scents before she had something she was ready to sell.
Fragrance oils don't necessarily smell the same in a bottle as they do when they're burning in a candle, she explained.
Her first attempt seemed promising until she lit the candle and discovered the fragrance notes weren't coming through the way she'd imagined.
So she kept experimenting.
Eventually, she landed on what she was looking for: “A sweet scent with the tang of meringue that would honor a family memory” – and something that could evoke a homemade pie without smelling anything like an actual calf.
The response surprised even her.
At craft shows, customers would stop at her booth, spot the name and begin telling stories.
"We hear, once you say something, it was the calf slobbers, people will say, 'Oh my gosh, my grandparents called it that, too,'" Miller Reeves said.
What began as one family's funny expression turned out to be familiar to other families as well.
"It has been really neat to share that experience with people," she said.
From Christmas Gifts To A Business
Miller Reeves never set out to become a candle maker.
In 2014, she had grown tired of the consumerism surrounding Christmas and made an agreement with her family that everyone would exchange handmade gifts instead of buying presents.
She tried making several things that year.
Candles were among them.
And candles stuck.
"I really enjoyed making them and all the fun things you can do with them," she said.
Her hobby eventually grew into Rustic Enigma, an online retail business that sells candles, wax melts, room sprays, aroma oils and car air fresheners.
Her agricultural upbringing has helped shape her business.
Miller Reeves grew up in northeastern New Mexico, where her parents raised cattle and alfalfa. The family also operated a hay-grinding business that supplied feed yards.
She participated in FFA programs and competitions, and ranching was part of everyday life.
That background makes the popularity of Calf Slobbers especially meaningful.
The fragrance has been a best-seller for Rustic Enigma, whose products are sold through retailers across the country, from Washington to Florida and New York to California.
The company doesn't have a retail partner in Wyoming, Miller Reeves said, but she would welcome one.
In the meantime, customers can purchase the products online.
A Hit In Nebraska
One state away from Wyoming, another woman with strong agricultural roots has discovered just how much people love Calf Slobbers.
At Wesley's Boutique, an online business based in Sumner, Nebraska, the fragrance has been one of the most popular scents for most of the boutique's existence.
Owner Lana Davis started the business a little more than eight years ago after working as a retail manager in Texas.
She loved retail and knew she wanted to run a business of her own.
After leaving her management position to finish her master's degree, she returned home to Nebraska and decided to take a chance.
"I went out on a big jump of faith and that's how it came to be," she said.
Today, Wesley's Boutique operates entirely online, with no brick-and-mortar storefront.
Much of its merchandise reflects the ranching and farming traditions that shaped Davis' family.
Even the business name is a tribute to the past.
Wesley is the middle name shared by her father and grandfather.
Other products bear names inspired by relatives, including Gust Hereford Bull Tea, named after a great-grandfather.
Davis often photographs merchandise on her family's pastureland, incorporating the landscape and agricultural heritage into the business.
"I try to incorporate past family members," she said.
That same appreciation for family history helps explain why Calf Slobbers has become such a hit with her customers.
More Than A Candle
Davis markets Wesley's Boutique largely to western and agricultural customers, but she's found that Calf Slobbers appeals to a much broader audience.
Some buyers are actively involved in farming or ranching. Others grew up around agriculture but have since moved away. Still others have no direct agricultural background at all.
What connects many of them is a memory or a story – a piece of nostalgia.
Davis said customers regularly send her messages explaining what the fragrance reminds them of.
Some remember their grandparents calling the meringue on pies calf slobbers.
Others remember the smell of a family kitchen or the desserts they enjoyed as children.
Davis hadn't grown up hearing the expression herself.
She first encountered it while living in Texas, and the more she talked with customers, the more she realized how many families had used it.
The messages have become one of her favorite parts of selling the fragrance.
For people who no longer live on a farm or ranch, a simple candle can bring back a little piece of the life they once knew.
And for people who never grew up around livestock, the name alone is enough to make them curious.
An Old Cowboy Expression
As unusual as the name might sound, calf slobbers has a history that stretches back generations — including in Wyoming.
The Campbell County Rockpile Museum in Gillette includes the expression in an educational guide about chuck wagons and cowboy life.
According to the museum's glossary of cowboy slang, "calf slobbers" was simply another name for the meringue on top of a pie.
It was part of a colorful vocabulary that included "cow grease" for butter, "hen fruit" for eggs and "canned cow" for canned milk.
The expression also appeared in a July 2023 article in the Pine Bluffs Post in Laramie County about cowboy cooking traditions.
Historical slang references document the expression as early as the 1920s, suggesting that ranch families have been joking about calf slobbers for roughly a century.
For generations of cowboys and ranch families, it was simply part of the language of the West.
Now, thanks to a candle maker who wanted to preserve a family memory, the old expression is finding an entirely new audience.
And unlike the real thing, these calf slobbers smell like marshmallow and meringue.
A Sweet-Smelling Surprise
Miller Reeves isn't surprised that Calf Slobbers has become a best-seller at Wesley's Boutique.
After all, it's a best-seller in her own business, too.
She believes the fragrance has the unusual advantage of appealing to customers for several different reasons.
Some simply love the sweet scent. Others appreciate the humor.
And then there are the people looking for a gift for someone who seems to have everything.
Calf Slobbers, she said, checks all the boxes.
"It's that wonderful gift," Miller Reeves said.
For someone who doesn't know what to give a friend or family member, there's the fun of the name, the curiosity about what it could possibly smell like and the pleasure of discovering that it smells wonderful.
"People give it as gifts all the time," she said.
What started with a family's handmade Christmas presents and a great-grandfather's teasing remark has become something much bigger.
It's a reminder that some of the sweetest things people carry with them aren't necessarily heirlooms tucked away in a cedar chest or photographs hanging on a wall.
Sometimes they're expressions passed down around the dinner table.
And sometimes, improbably enough, they come in a candle labeled Calf Slobbers.
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
