Haiti
Victor Boucard and Louis Déjoie help develop essential-oil production in Haiti.
Three Generations at the Still
A family tradition of distillation, refined through decades of hands-on experience and carried forward in every batch.
Where it starts
Before Texarome had a name, distillation was already part of our family life.
Growing up in Haiti, one of Gueric Boucard's earliest memories was visiting his father Victor's distillery. He watched workers load the stills, tend the boilers and separate the oil from the water. Outside, he and his brothers jumped on piles of spent vetiver as though they were cushions.
That mix of observation, experimentation and hands-on work has guided the family ever since.
1940s
Haiti · Victor Boucard
The First Generation
In the 1940s, Victor Boucard and his brother-in-law Louis Déjoie helped develop Haiti's emerging essential-oil industry. They distilled vetiver and worked with crops including lemongrass, lime, basil and neroli, for customers in the United States and Europe.
The work took more than knowing how to run a still. It meant understanding the crop, designing equipment, organizing production and adapting when circumstances changed. Those lessons passed naturally to the next generation.
The relationships lasted too. Vetiver is still one of our four oils, from producers in southern Haiti we have known for years.
Early 1980s
Texas · Gueric Boucard
A New Beginning in Texas
After studying pharmaceutical chemistry and working in the flavor industry, Gueric returned to distillation. In Texas, he set out to learn whether cedarwood oil could be produced with a continuous process rather than conventional batch distillation.
Using the laboratory resources of Texas A&I University, he tested the process and refined the idea. Gueric and his brother, also named Victor, then built the first working equipment themselves in a garage. They mounted the boiler and the distillation unit on trailers and took them to a ranch near Mountain Home.
Production began in the early 1980s. After a fire destroyed the original operation, the family rebuilt in Leakey, Texas. That plant became Texarome's home.
Late 1980s
Leakey · Refinement
From Distillation to Refinement
At first, Texarome sold its cedarwood oil crude. In the late 1980s, Gueric began working with a chemist to separate and refine its individual components.
Together they developed a fractionation system that let Texarome remove heavier materials, isolate different portions of the oil and adjust the finished product to a customer's specification. Gueric designed and built much of the equipment himself.
That changed the business. Texarome no longer simply distilled cedarwood: it could refine, fractionate and produce consistent materials for specific fragrance applications.
In the 1990s the family also returned to the Caribbean, building a distillery in Jacmel, Haiti, that focused on amyris. In the early 2000s it moved to the Dominican Republic, where it still produces our amyris. Every lot is fractionated at our plant in Leakey.
Today
Rick and Natalie Boucard
The Third Generation
When Rick Boucard joined the family business, Texarome entered another period of expansion. The Leakey plant added stills, larger boilers, new grinding equipment and more automation, while keeping the practical knowledge of the generations before.
In 2019, Natalie Boucard joined Texarome and developed its fragrance division, bringing the family's experience with raw materials into fine fragrance and custom scent development. Through Project Fragrance and Aromaia, ingredients that begin at the still can now become finished fragrances and products.
The equipment is larger and the capabilities broader, but the approach is the same: understand the raw material, stay close to production and keep improving the work.
Three generations on, we are still building, distilling and creating from the source.
Since the 1940s
The Years at a Glance
Expanding Production
The family distills vetiver, lemongrass, citrus and other botanicals.
Texas
Gueric develops and builds a continuous cedarwood distillation system.
Leakey
After losing the original operation to a fire, the family rebuilds in Leakey, Texas.
Fractionation
Texarome begins refining cedarwood oil into consistent, tailored fractions.
Amyris
The family builds an amyris distillery in Jacmel, Haiti, and in the early 2000s moves it to the Dominican Republic.
A New Generation in Production
Rick joins the family business and leads an expansion of the Leakey plant's capacity and automation.
From Ingredients to Fragrance
Natalie joins Texarome and develops its fragrance division, extending the family's ingredient knowledge into custom and fine fragrance.
CO₂ Technology
Texarome expands into supercritical CO₂ with engineer Jeremy Diehl: extraction systems, method development and CO₂ dewaxing.
Scroll through the years
Leakey, Texas
Come and See Where It's Made
Customers and partners are welcome at our plant in the Texas Hill Country.