Rose water recipe

With so many rose recipes here on frolic and fare, it only makes sense to share how to make rose water at home. You'll be shocked how easy it is to make your own rose water at home with no special tools required. And just two ingredients - roses and water!

Using flowers is one of the easy ways to enhance your life with fresh flowers and organic roses! This diy rose water can be used in so many different ways.

Methods of making rose water at home:

• Distillation method - the one we go into detail in this post
• Infusion method - Simple and less strong, simply infuse rose petals in water for several days in your refrigerator and then strain roses and use your rose water!

Why you'll love this recipe:

• Roses are loaded with health benefits
• It makes a beautiful, thoughtful gift, and doesn't take a long time!
• According to Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry roses exhibit very strong radical scavenging effect and antioxidant power
• Its petals are nutritionally dense, containing an abundance of vitamin A, B, C, E
• In Ayurvedic medicine, roses are believed to to balance the heart chakra
• Roses are calming to the central nervous system according to thel Journal of Experimental Biology
• Rose water is delicious in your recipes, like rose lemonade or cucumber rose water gin and tonic.
• Rose water is prized in all natural skincare regimes, add a splash to your bath with some essential oils and prepare to relax!

Roses are so beautiful that they have a built-in protection mechanism (thorns). Roses are popular for their beauty, but also their healing properties. They are a symbol of love, and authentic rose products have an extremely high vibration. Everything on earth is made of energy and therefore vibrates within a certain frequency. Natural rose water is a wonderful way to capture the essence of the your most beautiful roses.

It's really no wonder why I love to add rose water to my tea, like Rose water matcha tea recipe or rose iced green tea. And in addition to being added to my culinary creations, using rose water as a rose hydrosol is also prized as a natural beauty product. More on that below! In this easy diy rosewater recipe, we use the classic distillation method.

I was fortunate enough to witness this firsthand in Tunisia during a floral water class. These woman used real distillation pots, but showed us how to make it the easy way from home. Their favorite uses for their rose water was in their espresso after fasting during Ramadan. I tried it myself and must say, rose water in espresso makes a wonderful addition.

How to choose the right roses

This simple distillation process results in edible rose water, as long as you've chosen the right type of roses. I have a whole post dedicated to Where to buy or find edible flowers if you're not sure where to start!

The color of the petals does not matter in this easy rose water recipe, and you can use any type of fragrant roses.

You can choose fresh organic rose petals directly from your garden, or organic dried rose buds. Having your own edible flower garden is the best place to get your natural ingredients, flower petals, and in this case - your own roses: fresh rose petals and rose blossoms.

You can also forage wild plants safety and sustainably. For example, over the summer there was an abundance of wood roses behind the mother's house in the mountains and I most certainly ate a few of them. And made rose infused honey, of course.

Harvesting tips working with flowers for consumption:

• Don't use roses from highly contaminated areas such roadways, chemically treated gardens.
• If you haven't tried a particular flower in culinary uses, taste a small piece before ingesting too much. You can be allergic to flowers.
• Do not use that wilting bouquet from the grocery store. It has likely been highly sprayed with pesticides.

Ingredients you need:

• Organic rose petals, preferably fresh petals - but you can use dry rose petals if that's all you have access to.
• Distilled water
• Ice

Tools you need:

• A large pot with a lid
• A glass bowl that fits inside of the large pot
• A strainer
• An airtight container to store your rose water

Step by step process:

For the freshest, most flavor enhanced method - we distill the rose petals and end up with the most natural fragrance and benefits from the roses.

• First you'll need to pick and prepare your roses

If you're using fresh roses from your organic garden, remove the petals from the stems. Gently mist your petals with tap water from a gentle mist spray bottle to clean them, being careful not to bruise them. Remove any dirt or bugs. If you're using dried petals, skip this step. The amount of roses you use is entirely up to you. Try to use petals from least three full fresh roses, or one cup of dried rose petals.

• Place a small glass bowl in the center of a large pot. Place petals into the pot and around the bowl before adding the distilled water. Make sure you don't get distilled water directly into your bowl. The rose-infused condensation will collect on the underside of the pot lid, then drip down inside the clean bowl, giving you pure, concentrated rose water.

• Prepare your pot and distill

Place your lid upside down on your pot. The lid is used to trap steam inside, creating condensation - which will accelerate the steam. Turn your stove on to low temperature. As the ice starts to melt, remove the ice cubes and melted ice cube water and continue to add more fresh ice. Your water should not boil. Distill for 20 - 30 minutes, or until the rose petals color has faded. Make sure you have enough water through the process.

• Strain + Pour rose water in a sealed container 

Turn of the heat and wait for your pot to cool completely. Remove bowl of steamed rose water. Pour into an airtight container.

Note: You can also use the rose water that's remaining around the rose petals in the large pot. First, Pour off your rose water over a strainer into a large bowl. Let it sit so the water can drip from the petals. Store in the same or a separate airtight container, if desired. 

What is the shelf life ?

Store in the refrigerator for up to six months, or at room temperature for two weeks.

love edible flowers? these resources may be useful to you:

• Ways to use edible flowers
• Popular edible flowers chart and their meaning - printable chart
• How to store and preserve edible flowers
• Edible flowers to grow in your garden
• Where to buy or find edible flowers for cookies and cakes