Rose Bitters

Flavor Profile

They say you're supposed to stop and smell the roses from time to time, but how about stopping to taste them?  Tasting notes of fragrant dried rose, soft rose hip tartness, gentle floral sweetness, and clean lingering finish. Sometimes recipes call for soft, floral notes of the delicate and enchanting aroma of roses.  This organic extract is crafted from the finest rose petals, ensuring a pure and authentic flavor that enhances a wide range of dishes.  The bitter's versatility allows it to be used in a variety of recipes, from traditional Middle Eastern desserts to modern fusion cuisine to Indian and Greek cuisines to offering a wonderful accent to delicate French pastry glazes and creams to enhancing the flavor profile of any dish.  Our Rose Bitters is perfect for ice cream and frozen yogurt, rose flavored beer, soda, and liqueur, and even rose flavored frosting can be an unexpected delightful surprise.

Our sweet-scented Rose Bitters have an affinity for vanilla, dark and white chocolate, rice and even mild cheeses, such as cream cheese or Brie. It blends nicely with fruits like strawberry, raspberry, lychee and mango.

Since ancient times, cooks have been flavoring food with roses, valuing the ingredient for its fragrant quality and distinctive flavor. Rose water shows up in many ancient Middle Eastern recipes, and it has long been used as a substitute for wine in recipes. Throughout its history, roses have carried a reputation as a luxury ingredient, exemplified by the fact that Roman emperors once swam in pools of it. For centuries, European bakers used it to flavor madeleines and cakes. And, in the 17th century, rose water was rare enough and valuable enough that it could be used as legal tender.

Rose's delicate floral notes are perfect additions to Middle eastern, Indian and Greek foods and are wonderful accents to delicate French pastry glazes and creams.

First developed in ancient times with damask roses native to Persia [Iran] and Bulgaria, rose flower water has long held sacred importance in religious ceremonies of both the Muslim and Hindu religions. Roses were used by European and American bakers to flavor cakes and cookies until the nineteenth century, when vanilla flavoring became popularly available.  Rose flavor appears today in many Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Indian dessert dishes. In Iranian cuisine, rose is used in loukoum ["Turkish delight" or "Cyprus delight"], in tea, ice cream, cookies and other sweets. In the Arab world and in India, rose flavors milky dishes like rice pudding and the mango yogurt drink lassi. In Western Europe, rose (as well as orange flower water) flavors both marzipan and madeleines.

Rose bitters are delicious in creamy tapioca or rice puddings, marries well with most ricotta cheese desserts and Italian sponge cakes and cookies. Baklava with rose instead of honey is heavenly!  It pairs beautifully with flavors like pistachio, raspberry, lemon, and cardamom.

 Always start small. Using too much will make your food taste like potpourri or soap.  If substituting, use only a drop or two of extract for every teaspoon of rose water.

Perfect for floral cocktail lovers, brunch hosts, matcha and coffee enthusiasts, tea drinkers, and anyone who orders a rose latte at a third-wave coffee shop. It's the bitters behind a Rose Champagne Sparkler that ruins regular mimosas, an iced Matcha-Rose Latte that makes you slow down on a Tuesday morning, a Rose Mocha that turns a coffee into an experience, and a rose lemonade that tastes like spring. Stir it into clear spirits for a floral cocktail that feels deliberately made. Splash it into hot tea on a cold night.

Fat-Free, Saturated Fat-Free, Cholesterol-Free, Sodium-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Paleo, Vegetarian

Suggestions for Uses

• Add to pâtés, pies, béchamel sauce, and milk puddings, and cakes

• Rosy Harissa Chicken

• Rose, Vanilla, & Honey Poached Figs 

• Ricotta Crêpes with Honey, Walnuts, and Rose

• Panfried Sea Bass with Harissa & Rose

• Khagineh (Stuffed Persian Sugar Omelet)

• Add a few drops to your recipes to impart a subtle floral note. It is ideal for flavoring cakes, cookies, ice creams, and beverages such as teas and cocktails.

• Add a floral dimension to cakes, pastries, and cookies. 

• The bitters can also be incorporated into frostings and glazes, providing a unique twist to traditional recipes.

• A few drops of rose bitters can elevate the flavor of teas, lemonades, syrups, and cocktails, offering a refreshing and aromatic experience

• The bitters can be used to enhance sauces and marinades, adding a subtle complexity to meat and vegetable dishes

• Use it to craft premium lattes, delicate pastries, or standout candies that showcase a refined, romantic rose profile

• Rose Scented Peaches: 2 fresh peaches halved, mix 100ml sugar syrup with 2 tablespoons of Rose Bitters. Bring the syrup to a simmering point. Poach peaches for 5 mins in the syrup and allow to cool. Serve just warm with honeyed yogurt.

• Rose Pots: 450g double cream, 50g icing sugar, 100ml warm milk, 1 tablespoon of Rose Bitters, 2 teaspoons of Holiday Extract. Whip cream until soft peaks form. Sift in the icing sugar. Mix drops with warm milk, and whisk into cream. Pour mixture into ramekins and chill overnight.

•  Baklava, rice puddings, cookies, French pastry glazes and creams

• Rice, chicken, stews, vegetable slaws, citrus salads, dressings

• Sparkling waters, milk, tea, sangrias, mojitos, smoothies

• Aromatherapy (add a teaspoon to two cups of water and simmer)

• Add a drop or two to vanilla frostings, whipped creams, cheesecakes, or shortbread batters. 

• Add 3 to 5 dashes of rose bitters to a standard Gin & Tonic to give the drink an elegant, aromatic floral twist.

• Replace or supplement standard bitters in a rosé, Aperol, or sparkling wine spritz with a few dashes of rose.

• Combine gin, lemon juice, berry extract, and 3 dashes of rose bitters. Shake with ice for a perfectly balanced floral sour.

• Substitute traditional aromatic bitters with rose bitters in a Bourbon Old Fashioned (or pair them together) for a softer, sweeter, botanical finish.

• Add a drop or two to sparkling water, lemonade, iced tea, or a matcha latte for a subtle floral finish to give it a sophisticated, spa-like flavor.

• Tapioca pudding

• Falooda

• Turkish Delight inspired cheesecake