Hi mattressseeker,
I don’t know what would be the “best option” for you (or anyone else for that matter) because it would depend on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you and this would be different for different people. These are the types of comparisons that only each person can make for themselves. Neither one has any lower quality materials or any weak links in their design in terms of durability.
You will generally find that mattresses that are made by the same manufacturer are generally in a similar “value” range based on the “commodity” or “raw material” value of the mattress (except mattresses in higher budget ranges will generally have a slightly higher margin) but a mattress isn’t a commodity that can be measured or assessed in terms of the price per inch of foam or the price per pound of fabric and the raw material value has little to do with which one you would prefer or how well you will sleep on either one (again see post #13 here for more information about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase).
Both of them use latex in the top 6" so they would be very similar in terms of durability but they would have a different “feel”. The Essence would be of more interest to those that are looking for natural materials and are in a higher budget range because it uses 100% natural latex (Dunlop and Talalay) while the Alexis uses blended Talalay (about 30% natural and 70% synthetic) and polyfoam (which is a synthetic foam). Both of them use safe materials that are either certified by Oeko-Tex (in the case of the latex in both mattresses) or CertiPur (the polyfoam in the Alexis) for harmful substances and VOC’s.
The choice of materials or the type of latex is a personal preference much more than a “better/worse” choice but there is more about the different types and blends of latex in post #6 here.
There is also more about a latex/polyfoam hybrid vs an all latex mattress in post #2 here although the Alexis has 6" of latex in the top layers and since most of what people “feel” on a mattress comes from the upper layers there would be less difference between them than between an all latex mattress and a latex hybrid that used thinner layers of latex in the upper layers.
Both of them have the option to customize the mattress in different ways before a purchase but the Alexis has two layers that can be exchanged or customized after a purchase while the Essence only has a single top layer that can be customized or exchanged after a purchase so the Alexis has slightly more customization options available after a purchase.
Both of them would make a great choice but different people would have different preferences.
If I had to guess I would say that more people would choose the Brooklyn Bedding Alexis over the Essence but that certainly wouldn’t be the case for all people because some people are more comfortable in a higher budget range and put a higher priority on all natural materials and the benefits of having an all latex mattress that doesn’t include any synthetic materials.
When you are down to final choices that are between “good and good” and there are no clear winners between them then the final choice (see post #2 here) will really be a matter of “best judgement” based on all the objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
Phoenix