Tiki Torches

It’s going to be in the upper 70s today!  

I don’t know about you but I can NOT wait for summer and all the good things it brings like grilling, bonfires, beers and hookah on the patio. Brad and I recently “discovered” Zavotski Meats & Deli.  I say “discovered” because we've known about it for a while now and have said countless times “we should go there instead of House of Meats since it’s so close,” but House of Meats although a farther drive, was familiar to us.  Finally, we decided to walk over to Zavotski after the gym one day; I’m so glad we did.  This past weekend we had two of the most amazing chicken burgers, one was tomato basil and the other was blue cheese and jalapeno, no condiments needed.

Last night we used our time to make something that could only enhance our outdoor summer.  What we need is something to keep those pesky bugs away while enjoying sitting outside on the patio.  We could just go out and buy a citronella candle or some tiki torches but that’s so cliché and boring, so we decided to make our own.

I found this pin on Pinterest labeled “DIY tiki torch wine bottles that look pretty and keep the mosquitoes away.”  Perfect. 

Picture from "When Pigs Fly"

What you need:

•  Empty and clean bottle
• Tiki Torch wick refill
• Tiki Torch citronella lamp oil
• 3/8” metal washer
• Funnel
• (Optional) Decorative rocks

We got everything we needed (except the bottles) at Home Depot.  I’m not sure they sell small bags of decorative rock there, we picked smaller ones from a bag of leftover rocks we bought last summer, from Home Depot’s garden area.  We found the wick refill and torch fuel in the lawn and garden section and the washers with the nuts and bolts. 

We decided to use Corona bottles instead of wine bottles. I think drinking Corona screams summer, but maybe that’s from watching all those Corona commercials, I guess those advertisers earned their paycheck.  I took one of the bottles with me to Home Depot to make sure to buy washers that would were the right size; you want them big enough to sit flush on top of the bottle opening.

Making Tiki Torches:

1. Fill the bottle with decorative rocks to your desired height, this part is optional as the rocks are for decoration only. Since we used Corona bottles instead of wine bottles we ended up having to cut the wicks so they would fit into the bottles without touching the rocks.
2. Using your funnel, fill the bottle with Tiki Torch Oil.  We filled ours just above the bottom of the bottle neck.
3. Fit your wick into the center of a metal washer so about 1/4" is sticking out from the top.
4. Place the long side of the wick into the bottle, the weight of the wick and washer will hold the washer in place on the top of the bottle.  This is why we had to cut our wicks, they were sitting on the rocks instead of hanging in the bottles, causing the washer to be unable to sit flush on the bottle opening.

I was surprised at how quickly the wicks soaked up the fuel, I was able to light them almost immediately.

We kept them lit for a short time to make sure they worked and I'm happy say they worked PERFECTLY.  When kept lit for a while the bottles start to turn black, as you can see below.  This is normal, it's just soot and will wipe off with dry towel.

Thank you to my awesome helpers, Brad and Maggie!