Melissa Melissa (Bulgaria)

Why Bulgaria?

Bulgaria is an agricultural haven for growing aromatic plants and the people are rich in expertise. Near the Black Sea, the sunny and dry climate coupled with the well-drained, sandy soil make the growing conditions in Bulgaria ideal.

While Bulgaria historically boasted some of the world’s premier essential oil research, development, and production, in the post-communist era the industry faltered for numerous reasons, but especially because of the government’s financial support for wheat, sunflower, and corn. Many Bulgarian farmers replaced aromatic plants with these crops.

This led to a lack of innovation in the aromatic agricultural space, which inspired us to establish the esseterre facility in Dobrich, Bulgaria. While esseterre works with local farms around Dobrich, some Melissa is also grown and distilled in the South of Bulgaria where irrigation is abundant.

Although esseterre is owned by dōTERRA, it really is a Bulgarian firm, built and managed by Bulgarians. Expert managers, distillers, farmers, and engineers combine their impeccable skills and a shared commitment to positively impact their communities.

How does it work?

What does the plant look like?

Melissa (Melissa officinalis) is a plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It reaches a height of 70-150 cm. The leaves are light green in color and have a slight lemony smell. Small white-purple flowers appear in late summer. They attract bees, hence the name Melissa (from the Greek word for bee).

When/how is Melissa cultivated?

Melissa is a perennial plant that is harvested twice a year, in the last two weeks of June and the last week of August. The oil from the first and second harvest differs in chemistry and yields. dōTERRA’s Melissa is a blend of both harvests.

Melissa is heat-loving and demanding of nutrients in the soil. It grows best on fertile, humus-rich, loose soils. Insufficient or excessive irrigation adversely affects the plant. Light has a positive effect on the essential oil content. The plant is delicate to transport, and the fields are close to the distillery so that it is delivered quickly and fresh.

What part of the plant is used to make the essential oil?

The green part of the plant is used to make the essential oil. It is cut 5-10 cm above the soil, just before the flowering stage, when the essential oil content and quality is highest.

How is this oil distilled?

The oil is distilled with steam distillation. After being received at a distillery, the fresh raw material is loaded as quickly as possible into the stills. The distillation process takes 2 and a half hours. It takes approximately 22 pounds of leaves to produce a 5 mL bottle of Melissa.

The Esseterre team uses some of the post-distilled biomass for research and development.

Generating Jobs and Preserving Legacy

The establishment of Esseterre has provided significant economic revitalization to the Dobrich, Bulgaria region. It has brought a multi-million investment and many jobs to a country where nearly a quarter of its population lives at or below the global poverty line. More and more farmers are coming to Esseterre with their crops. This can be attributed to several things including the sophistication and quality of the equipment and technology, as well as Esseterre’s reputation as a consistently reliable buyer that pays fairly and promptly.

For years, the few remaining distilleries in Bulgaria have been mostly managed by brokers. They determined how much and when the farmers would get paid. Many farmers are paid unfairly, and some are not paid for months, or even years, until the brokers have sold the oil. At Esseterre, however, we can test the quality of a farmer’s crop and essential oil nearly immediately. The on-site, state of the art laboratory includes a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) machine to confirm quality and a space where farmers can watch and wait while their crops are being distilled. Having this technology on-site allows us to not only confirm, while the farmer waits, that their plants produced the highest quality oil, but also to pay farmers fairly and timely—usually the same day. We also award bonuses to farmers with the highest quality oil.

Healing Hands

The doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation has been able to support a variety of projects and organizations in Bulgaria including The Social Teahouse, a scholarship project, and a playground project.

The Healing Hands Foundation has partnered with The Social Teahouse, an organization dedicated to creating equal opportunities for children in Bulgaria as they age out of the orphanage system. These children lack education and literacy, personal and emotional development, and access to professional opportunities equal or comparable to their peers. The Social Teahouse focuses on providing children between the ages of 14 and 18 with the skills and competencies they need to develop and independent lifestyle by bridging their time in the orphanage and their life after. The teahouse is actually a teahouse. On the first floor, the orphaned teens work as baristas who take orders and prepare and serve tea. The second floor has been converted into a spacious meeting room where members of the mentorship program can hold meetings or group activities. The proceeds from the tea sales and merchandise sold by the Social Teahouse all go toward supporting the organization’s efforts to prepare orphaned teens for the workforce.

A partnership with the organization Mothers’ Care Club provides scholarships for orphans and poverty-stricken children in the Dobrich, Bulgaria area. Additionally, Healing Hands has provided funding for a primary school, secondary school, and university students.

After the opening of the Esseterre distillery, the mayor of Dobrich received a letter from children in the community requesting a safe place for them to play. The Dobrich Municipality immediately began drawing up plans for two children’s playgrounds (one for ages 6 and younger and one for ages 3 to 12) as well as preparing space between some residential buildings a few blocks from Esseterre. Healing Hands financially supported the building and expenses of these two playgrounds for the children.