What is Single Origin?

If you drink coffee, you would have no doubt heard the term Single Origin as well as its opposite term, blend.

Single Origin, in coffee, is when the coffee beans are sourced from one specific geo-location or even one specific farm. The flavours are normally more intense and defined. Basically it's as true as it can be. What you're experiencing is the unique flavour that is the coffee bean of that origin.
What happens when you blend that coffee bean with a coffee bean from a different plantation is a muddle of flavours. I'm not saying that this is a terrible thing, one of my favourite coffee blends comprises of beans from two completely different plantations, what is interesting though is the unique qualities each bean brings to that blend.

Just like coffee, an essential oil from one plantation can be completely different from an essential oil produced elsewhere.

Lavender from Australia is much higher in camphor than Lavender from Bulgaria and each of these constituents play a crucial role in the best usages of that particular oil. If you want to learn more about constituents, head to our resources section and download our cheat sheet.

Another major benefit to single origin is that it really celebrates and honours the farmer. A single beautiful quality product is produced in its entirety from one location. 

Single Origin is also a way of stamping and certifying a product to be completely pure. When something is called pure you believe it's is exactly that, not chemically or aromatically enhanced, just simple and pure. 

A few decades ago there was a trend towards cheapening a pure product to stretch it further. Cheapening occurs when aromatic chemicals and fractionated constituents are blended into the oil to make it more or less like something. This practice is fine if you're not swayed by purity and the science behind this is actually quite fascinating, but all in all it's not the real deal and the real deal does exist. Cheapened products generally end up in your commercial household products and cheap skin care items as margins can be higher and quantity for money is skewed in favour of the manufacturer.

Some fractionations occur from natural products or pure essential oils, like our fractionated coconut oil, and this in itself is just another prime example of the many uses of essential oils, but some are, unfortunately, chemically derived. It's for this reason we encourage the understanding of purity and for all the reasons above why we choose to only range single origin essential oils.

There are some amazing things happening in Australia and given that we as a country have an incredibly diverse climate, there are many more amazing oils we can produce here. These will be slightly different to their native brothers and sisters but no doubt will be amazing in their own right.

Single Origin gives to the farmer as much as it gives to the consumer. The consumer receives the opportunity to experience a truly individual essential oil. The farmer receives bigger returns and a pride in product that is unlike any other.

At earthYARD we encourage our customers to know their oils including where they come from and how they were produced.