Rose Water

When I first met my husband back when we were college students more than thirty years ago, he introduced me to rose water. He would put just a drop of rose water in the pitcher of water he kept in the fridge and I thought it tasted just exquisite compared to plain old water!

 Recently we traveled to Taif, Saudi Arabia, for a few days, where we visited a "Rose Water Factory," and I got to see how rose water is made. The plain building didn't look like much of a factory from the outside, however the smell of roses was definitely in the air!

Out back behind the building was their large rose garden. They use only the light pink roses of Taif to make the rose water.

When I entered the building, I saw dozens of distilling contraptions and the process was explained to me. The entire intact head of the rose was used at this factory, not just the petals. However no stems or leaves are used.

About a dozen large bags of rose heads were placed inside each large vat of boiling water. The roses are boiled, steamed, and steeped in the water. The steam from the rose water rises and condenses as it goes through a tube in a cooling tank.

The rose water drips slowly into an awaiting collection vessel.

The discarded leftover waste is placed out on the edge of the road in front of the factory for anyone to take for free. It can be used as mulch.

Each day each distilling set-up can produce two full large bottles of rose water, which is then poured into smaller bottles for sale.

Rose Water not only makes drinking water taste wonderful, it is also used in cosmetics and in food products, especially sweets, has some medical uses and also religious purposes.