The begonia is a flower that’s often overlooked in culinary pursuits, perhaps because it doesn’t have much of an aroma. Depending on the variety, the bloom can be strikingly beautiful, but its essence seems too subtle to impart much flavor.
That is, unless you know what you’re doing, which Leticia Fernández de Mesa does.
“Flowers changed everything for us,” said Fernández de Mesa.
It happened when she and her husband, Inigo, left Spain for Colombia to open an art auction house. Fernández de Mesa’s background is not in spirits, but in the fine-arts business. “It was going to be three months and it turned into three years,” she said.
(Courtesy of UNA Vodka)
Una’s mild nature means it blends well with any number of cocktails, like the Watermelon Blossom, a summery pleaser made with strained watermelon juice, elderflower liqueur, and rose water.
As Europeans in Colombia, Fernández de Mesa and her husband began experimenting with the way flowers could improve the flavor of a pure spirit. “For Europeans, sipping on spirits is in our DNA,” she said.
BOTANICAL BEGINNINGS
At first, the botanical infusions were a DIY project.
We were basically doing it at home, very, very crafty,” Fernández de Mesa recalls. “Eventually, we rented an apartment in Bogota, where we would have an infusion of one flower, then another, then another. Different friends would taste each infusion.”
The obsessive interest in the flavor of flowers paid off when they hit on a formula, which the couple refined when they moved to Miami.
“Once we were rounding out begonia with orange blossom and a little bit of vanilla from Madagascar, there was no going back,” Fernández de Mesa said. “It’s not sweet. It’s just balanced.”
A TASTE OF SUCCESS
Once the couple hit on that formula, Una Vodka, and a business was born. The formula consists of 8-times-distilled corn vodka, steeped with begonia flowers along with hints of orange blossom and Madagascar vanilla. The resulting spirit is clear, with the vague hint of a pink tinge. It blushes at you. The bottle is striking, but not overly flashy, with its flowery art on the label and ornate, flower-shaped stopper.
(Courtesy of UNA Vodka)
Founder Leticia Fernández de Mesa said her favorite cocktail is an Una Martini: That’s Una served straight-up in a chilled glass.
“The flower stopper is a sign that you are about to do something beautiful, like a perfume stopper,” said Fernández de Mesa. “What if you can sip on beauty? That was the question.”
Opening a bottle has an immediate effect. A subtle aroma, floral, but not perfumed, fills the room. It doesn’t overpower, but it lingers pleasantly.
That concept of lingering without overpowering became Una’s business strategy as well.
“In life, most people have to be sharks,” Fernández de Mesa said. “They feel you have to be aggressive. You can achieve goals by being a nice person, by working slowly. Once we get people to taste it, it makes a difference. Every account we get, we keep.”
BIRTHING AND BUSINESS
Fernández de Mesa is a businesswoman and a mother, a combination that hasn’t always been easy or predictable. Her pregnancies with her two daughters both marked key moments in the company’s development. With her eldest daughter, now 5 years old, the idea for the botanical vodka came together. With her second daughter, now 18 months, the product was ready to launch into the market.
“I had a huge belly and a car full of vodka bottles, knocking on doors, asking, ‘Will you celebrate art of the craft with us?’ It’s been a sacrifice on every level. We don’t have a normal life, but we wouldn’t change it,” Fernández de Mesa said. “I want to be able to tell my daughters anything is possible.”
PERSONAL CONNECTIONS
(Victor Jaramillo)
Leticia Fernández de Mesa spent four years perfecting a floral formula with her husband, Inigo
In Miami, Una quickly found itself part of a community of small businesses.
“I don’t think we would have been able to start anywhere else,” Fernández de Mesa said. “This is truly a magical city. Anything can happen.”
Some of the first bottles of Una came out of facilities run by Miami Club Rum. Now, to keep up with higher demand, they’re bottled at a larger facility in Fort Myers.
Una has done events with various organizations and companies, from soy candle makers to Fever-Tree, a British brand of premium drink mixers, but one upcoming campaign has Fernández de Mesa particularly excited.
“We’re going to do an amazing cancer awareness campaign with F Cancer in October,” she said. “Part of our proceeds will go there. One way to support cancer patients, in cases where surgeons can’t reconstruct, is to have flower tattoo artists make something beautiful. We are preparing a campaign highlighting their designs: ‘You’re unique and singular any way you are.’”
SPIRITED AWAKENING
Though Fernández de Mesa stops short of touting Una as a health tonic, she said that because of their concern for purity and relatively low ABV (it’s 35 percent, or 70 proof), Una leaves you feeling better than many other spirits.
“I don’t want to have hangovers the next day,” Fernández de Mesa said. “I don’t know anyone who has drunk Una and had a hangover the next day. People deserve that.”
Fernández de Mesa even frames this as a challenge to any Biscayne tippler willing to step up. Can you drink Una and feel hung over? Experiments here are ongoing.
As to her favorite Una cocktail, Fernández de Mesa prefers it straight up.
The best pour for me is an Una martini, just Una cold in a glass,” she explained. “It is the perfect canvas to create any cocktail. We have worked with mixologists and bartenders, creators who are not afraid to stand their ground. We’ve made new cocktails which are like a transformation of the classics, like the Tuxedo #4 or Cosmonaut, which is a twist on the classic Cosmo. We respect the essence.”
Thus far, Una is available only in Florida, Texas, and California. They are working on adding New York to that list. For 2025, they hope to get their first foothold in the Caribbean, and to enter the European market through Spain.
The Fernandez de Mesas know they are competing against giants, but they have something the giants don’t: a creative way to pour flowers from a bottle.
“Who doesn’t have room for a flower in their bar?” Fernández de Mesa asked. “I can’t see someone saying they don’t want to try.”
Grant Balfour is a Miami Beach native, writer, editor, traveler, musician, bon vivant and our official Biscayne Tippler.
