Rose Craft - Rose Petals for Tea? ... AT MY ROSE GARDEN

Nothing can be lovelier than the aroma of fresh roses in a cup of tea.  Rose petal tea is easy to make using roses from your garden, and without artificial colourings or flavourings. 

Choose a full petalled, deep pink rose with a strong rose fragrance.  Good  roses to use are the Bourbons with their luscious fragrance.  One of the early Spring flowering Bourbon roses is Louise Odier with her full, bright pink and highly fragrant flowers.  A strong rose fragrance usually indicates a lovely rose flavour.

Alternatively, you could use one of the Tea roses (not to be confused with Hybrid Teas), so named for their fragrance reminiscent of dry tea leaves.  Tea roses have a variety of fragrances, from strong rose, fruity or citrus through to dry tea fragrance. Monsieur Tillier (pictured above) has a dry tea fragrance, along with petals that are crimson tinged with violet.   Mrs B R Cant also has a dry tea fragrance with a gorgeous deep pink colour.  Another Tea rose, Mrs Reynolds Hole, has a strong rose fragrance and rich pink colour.  It is fun to choose which rose has the most suitable fragrance and flavour for your rose petal tea.

Because she readily has an abundance of roses, I have used  the Tea rose, Comtesse de Labathe with her shell pink colour and delicate fragrance.   When dried, the colour and fragrance of this rose may not be as strong as other roses, but her softly coloured petals lend a subtle fragrance to loose leaf tea.

Whichever roses you decide on for your rose petal tea, choose perfect just opened roses with good colour and perfume.  As with all roses used in edible recipes, ensure your rose has NOT been sprayed with any pesticides.  Even if you use organic or ‘natural’ pesticides, these are still toxic and not safe for human consumption. You will need to dry your rose petals quickly to retain as much of the fragrance and flavour as possible.  

Take your bounty of lovely, fragrant roses.   Shake the flowers quickly to remove any dust and tiny insects.  Quickly rinse the whole flower under softly running water. Do not be tempted to leave your roses submerged in water as this will begin to release the precious volatile oils.  Gently shake the roses dry. 

Now pull the whole rose away from the base and snip across the bottom of the rose to remove the bitter white base of the petals.  To save time, do this in one snip across the bottom of the whole rose, rather than snipping each petal separately.

 

 Lay your petals out in a thin layer over paper towel.   Cover the layered rose petals with another paper towel and place these in the microwave.  Place your paper towel and rose petal sandwich on a heat proof flat plate and microwave on high in thirty second intervals, depending on the thickness and moisture content of the petals.  This small quantity took 3 bursts of 30 seconds each.  Ensure you do this in intervals as you will need to check that you have not burnt the rose petals. 

Once the petals are ready they should be dry and crisp, not leathery, and retain their colour.  Remove the petals from the now moist paper towel and lay on fresh paper towel to absorb any residual moisture.  Leave to cool and dry completely.  They should be crisp to touch and crumble easily.

Store the dried petals in a glass or china container (not plastic) away from light until you are ready to mix with your loose leaf tea.  Make sure there are no moist petals in your mix as these will re-hydrate the dried petals, causing them to go mouldy.   Now you are ready to mix your rose petals with your favourite tea.