Santa Bianca Essentia in Canada

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Podere Santa Bianca · Tuscany, Italy

One spray replaces the twist.

You’re holding a bottle of Essentia Food & Cocktail Finish: a natural food flavour made from alcohol, water and one pure essential oil, distilled on a family farm in Tuscany. In Canada, it is imported exclusively by Jesemi Alambika, Montréal.

• Organic family farm
• 28 aromas
• 50 ml · 400+ sprays
• Natural food flavour

How to use it

1. 1Hold it 10–15 cm (4–6 in) awayAim at the glass, not into the drink at close range.
2. 21 or 2 spraysOn top of the drink and on the side of the glass. That’s enough: the oil is concentrated.
3. 3Serve right awayThe aroma reaches the nose before the first sip. Add a spray if the drink is very cold.

Other ways: spray the empty, chilled glass before pouring (a rinse without the waste), or mist the garnish itself. In the kitchen: oysters, crudo and tartare, salads, grilled fish, ice cream and desserts.

Close the cap after use and keep away from heat and direct sunlight.

Pairings with the classics

Where to start with the drinks you already make.

Old FashionedBitter Orange · Bitter Cinnamon & OrangeReplaces the orange twist, bourbon or rye.

Dry MartiniLemon · Citron · YuzuThe lemon twist, without the twist.

ManhattanOrange Leaves · VanillaA softer, rounder nose.

CaesarBlack Pepper · Nepal PepperCanada’s cocktail: one spray on the rim.

Margarita & PalomaLime · Grapefruit & BasilFresh citrus, even in a batched or frozen serve.

Gin & TonicJuniper · CypressBrings the botanicals back to the nose.

NegroniBitter Orange · Green MandarinA brighter top note over the bitterness.

Moscow MuleGinger · LemongrassAmplifies the ginger beer.

Espresso MartiniVanillaOne spray on the foam.

Canadian whisky highballSpruceA northern forest in the glass.

Mezcal & agavePalo Santo · VetiverEchoes the smoke.

Zero-proof & sparkling waterPeppermint · Lemongrass · Damask RoseGives a zero-proof drink the nose of a cocktail.

The full range in Canada

28 aromas, all in 50 ml. Shop the collection.

Citrus

LemonLimeCitronYuzuBitter OrangeBitter Cinnamon & OrangeGreen MandarinGrapefruit & BasilBergamot

Leaves & herbs

Mandarin LeavesOrange LeavesRosemaryLavenderLemongrassPeppermintWild Carrot

Woods & conifers

JuniperCypressSpruceVetiverPalo Santo

Spices

GingerBlack PepperNepal PepperVanillaCovered Market

Flowers

JasmineDamask Rose

For bars, restaurants and hotels

Why bars use it: no knife, no peel and no waste. The same aroma from the first drink of the night to the last, whoever is behind the bar. With more than 400 sprays per bottle, one spray costs pennies. And it opens a menu of signatures without adding a single prep item.

Case studies

Québec City · Carnaval de Québec

The signature hot drink of the Carnaval de Québec

The Carnaval de Québec, one of the largest winter carnivals in the world, has its own signature hot drink, built on Prosyro’s Sirop du Carnaval, the festival’s official syrup. It is finished with a spray of Essentia Bitter Cinnamon & Orange.

The recipe

• ¾ oz Chic Choc spiced rum
• ¾ oz Coureur des Bois maple whisky liqueur
• ¾ oz Prosyro Sirop du Carnaval
• Hot water, to taste
• 1 spray of Essentia Bitter Cinnamon & Orange on top

Why it works: the drink is enjoyed outdoors, in the middle of winter, where cold dulls the senses. The steam carries the cinnamon and bitter orange straight to the nose, and every cup served during the festival gets exactly the same finish.

Your bar or restaurant uses Essentia? Tell us at info@jesemi.com: we’d love to feature it here.

Our ambassador: Alexandra Purcaru

Alexandra Purcaru is Santa Bianca’s ambassador. Originally from Rimini, Italy, she lived in Paris and Norway, with a stint in Canada, before settling in Oaxaca, Mexico. There she co-founded Selva, the cocktail bar above the restaurant Los Danzantes. Selva has been on North America’s 50 Best Bars every year since 2022 (No. 43 in 2026). She splits her time between Oaxaca and Paris, where she also runs Art Cocktail Club, and she brought Essentia to the bar at Montréal Cocktail Week.

Her cocktails are gastronomic: seasonal and local ingredients, herbs and edible flowers from the bar’s own garden, mezcal, and as little waste as possible. That is exactly where Essentia fits: the aroma of the plant, without the peel, the prep or the waste.

Where to buy it in Canada

Boutiques open Monday to Friday, noon to 6 p.m., and weekends, noon to 5 p.m.

The family behind Santa Bianca

Claudio Gaiaschi and Benedetta Tecchio founded Santa Bianca, and they still live and work on the farm. Everything starts there: they grow the plants, pick them, distil them and bottle the result by hand.

1. A ruin in Tuscany

   In the mid-2000s, they took on a 19th-century farmhouse in Pomarance, near Pisa, that was little more than a ruin, and rebuilt it into their home and their farm. It sits halfway up a hill above the Cecina valley, facing the woods of the Monte Berignone nature reserve, with sea air carried in on the west wind.

2. Farming with nothing added

   They farmed biodynamically until 2015 and are now certified organic, but they go further than the rules: no treatments on the plants, not even those organic standards allow. Alongside olive trees, they grow aromatic plants and gather wild ones in the valley and the woods around the farm.

3. The still

   On the farm, they steam-distil around twenty essential oils from Mediterranean plants, without chemical solvents and without altering the oil afterwards. For plants that don’t grow in Tuscany, they select essential oils from around the world that meet the same standard.

4. From flavour makers to Essentia

   For years, Claudio and Benedetta supplied flavours and advice to other producers. Then they created their own lines, including Essentia, made for the bar and the kitchen. Today it travels from their hill to bars across Europe and, through Jesemi Alambika, across Canada.

Visit santa-bianca.it

Questions

Produced by Santa Bianca SSA, Pomarance, Italy. Imported by Jesemi Alambika, Montréal, Quebec.