Walk down the essential-oil aisle of a wellness shop and you'll see twenty bottles that all look similar. Two of them are safe to eat. Eighteen are not.
Food-grade is non-negotiable
The first label to read is "food-grade." It means the oil has been processed and tested to a standard suitable for ingestion. Most essential oils on the market are aromatherapy-grade — perfectly fine for diffusers, dangerous for chocolate. We only buy food-grade.
Steam-distilled vs cold-pressed
For green herbs (peppermint, lemongrass), steam distillation is the gentlest method — vapour carries the volatile oils out of the leaves without overheating them. For citrus, cold-pressing the peel preserves the bright, top-note compounds that heat destroys. The right method depends on the botanical.
A peppermint bar made with cold-pressed oil tastes flat. A sweet orange bar made with steam-distilled oil tastes muddy. The mismatch is unmistakable.
Why we source single-origin
A lemongrass oil from Kerala tastes different from a Madagascan one — different soil, different sun, different harvest timing. Single-origin gives us the consistency to build a recipe and trust it.