Essie Bartels moved to the United States from Ghana at 18 and spent the first part of her career at various multinational corporations, seeing the world.
The flavors from her travels found their way into her home kitchen and then into her line of sauces and spice blends that meld international flavors with those of her native West Africa.
Essie's father was really sick with a failing kidney. Her mother and family changed his entire diet, took out excess salt, MSG, Bouillons, seed oils and started adding back indigenous herbs and spices like grains of Selim, Aidan pod and tamarind. His kidney function climbed up 50 points from a low 30 to a high 80.
This was the change and push that propelled Essie to create a convenient product that would bottle all these remarkable ingredients into the Essential Collection; Bottled up joy in a jar.