The essence of flavor - Essentia's story and latest products

In this article we uncover the story, secrets and newly released "cocktail finish" range with an interview with Claudio Gaiaschi from Essentia, an innovative company founded in 2013 in Tuscany that has been revolutionizing the way cocktails are scented.

Let's start with Essentia's story. How did the idea for a range of cocktail scents first come about?

We have been distilling essential oils for twenty years, initially focusing on the therapeutic benefits of these extracts. About fourteen years ago, my son Geronimo suggested we also explore their use in food preparations - an idea already tested in our kitchen by Benedetta, my partner and co-founder of Santa Bianca. So, we started participating in cooking and mixology events. One day, during a distillation demonstration at Superbar, Milan, I noticed that bartenders used lemon and orange peels to scent their drinks, extracting the essential oils from twists. The next day, I brought a small spray bottle containing a mix of lemon essential oil and alcohol and started a sort of contest. The bartenders prepared two cocktails, one with a twist and the other with my spray mix. The result? My mix was similar, if not better than the actual zests. From there, we began to consider the endless possibilities of cocktail scenting for professionals beyond lemon and orange. We spent a year selecting the most useful flavors and perfecting dilution ratios before we arrived at our current recipes. When Velier suggested we create sprays dedicated to Stoli Elit, Luca Gargano and his team liked the project so much they decided to include 24 flavors in their product catalogue. Twelve years later, Essentia operates in many countries with fifty official flavors, plus many more customized for bartenders, chefs and pastry chefs.

So, much more than cocktails...

Our journey began with mixology but eventually extended to cooking and ice cream making. Ice cream making and bartending share the problem of low temperatures, which reduce the perception of aromatic molecules. Smell is responsible for about 80% of the information our brain needs to form the idea of taste. Our mouth can only tell us if something tastes sweet, salty, acidic or bitter, but to be able to tell if we are eating an orange or a mandarin and notice their aromatic nuances we need olfactory information. Essentia has become an essential ingredient in many bars, kitchens, bakeries and ice cream parlors, allowing to extend the boundaries of creativity while ensuring control over every aspect of service.

What criticalities and main difficulties were you faced with at the beginning of your journey?

Diluting the essential oils was one of the biggest difficulties. As we don't use anything artificial, finding the right ratio for a pleasant and persistent scent is a long and complicated process, often influenced by small details. Another challenge was packaging. Our bottles contain fifty milliliters of product, enough for over four hundred sprays. Finding materials that would stay resistant to alcohol and essential oils for years has been very hard. Also, we wanted the spray to spread evenly and be well atomized, with no liquid parts. Today, our supplier produces pumps specifically for us according to a design we developed together. Another difficulty, which is also one of our strengths, is that we want to be one hundred percent natural and use no synthetic aromas. This limits the variety of flavors available – out of tens of thousands of existing plant species, only about four hundred produce essential oils. However, the complexity of nature makes our products very popular - just think that an essential oil contains 100 to 150 aromatic molecules, while synthetic aromas only combine three or four.

How important is ingredient quality in arousing emotions through smell?

Ingredient quality is Essentia's true and only secret. Distilling essential oils may sound simple, but the difference is in the details. We summarized our work method in three basic points. First, we try to recreate the plants' natural conditions. Aromatic plants are chemical laboratories that interact with the outside environment. When plants receive artificial aids such as fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, they stop producing some aromatic molecules, and this reduces the breadth and complexity of the scents. Secondly, we use small stills designed based on the golden ratio and distill once a year at the time when the plants' aromatic expression is at its peak. Distillation lasts for as many hours as it takes to extract all of the aromatic molecules - just think that some plants like the silver fir need to be distilled for three days. Finally, after distillation we let the essential oil stabilize for a period that lasts between three or four months up to three years, without adding any synthetic molecules or other additives. With these principles, Essentia's essential oils not only increase flavor perception but evoke deep olfactory memories, creating exciting experiences for our guests.

Could you give us an overview of your classic and new products?

Our bestsellers, which have been part of Velier's product catalogue for many years, include "single" flavors with a strong aromatic and evocative power like Bergamot, Damask Rose, Black Pepper and Green Mandarin. We also added Jasmine to the range - a sweet, wild scent. Our catalogue will soon also include blends made by Benedetta Tecchio, our co-founder and "nez absolu", designed to tackle a bigger challenge - assembling evocative perfumes starting from an inspiration or a suggestion. Our first request for a blend of two essential oils came from Ago Perrone from The Connaught Bar. Essentia Blend | Grapefruit and Basil has been his exclusive flavor for years, and today we are happy to add it to the Velier catalogue. When Enrico Gonzato asked us to recreate the scent of an entire street market, the challenge for Benedetta went up a notch. It was no longer about pleasantly combining two elements but recreating a whole setting, we had to take into account the fragrances of fruit, vegetables, vegetable leaves as well as the characteristic moisture note that defines the scent we wanted to replicate. It took a year of trials to get there but Essentia Blend | Covered Market is truly magical and amazing for its complexity and almost Umami balance. Essentia Blend | Sea Air and Essentia Blend | Sea come from two similar yet very different suggestions. The first evokes the iconic scents of the Mediterranean, with citrus fruits counterbalancing a fresh bouquet of Mediterranean aromatic herbs. For the second, to the scent of "air" we added a real sea note, with Kombu seaweed giving a salty, marine finish. Also in the marine theme we created Essentia Blend | Mistral, an impactful blend made from bergamot, lime, mint and basil, as refreshing as the famous northwesterly wind that brings relief from the summer heat.

Before we say goodbye, can you tell us about Essentia's plans for the future?

We are planning collaborations with major international brands, which we'll be announcing soon. One of the projects we can reveal is a collaboration with Rita's Tiki Room. Andrea Arcaini asked us to create an aromatic ambiance that represents their mixing style. Angelo Canessa called the result "the essence of a Zombie", a compliment that pleased us very much. We'll be introducing Essentia Blend | Tiki #1 in September, and we can't wait to hear what the bartender community has to say.