Rose Dose: Organic Rose Buds

Aside from enjoying roses in the garden for obvious reasons, I also love to harvest fresh blooms for culinary purposes including floral tisanes. During the growing season this is done easily by taking a stroll through one of my rose beds to see which plants might have a spare flower or two for the taking. During the off season however this is a little tougher, and this brings me to one of my favorite winter past times. Along with going over the David Austin catalogue in addition with various seed catalogues (and quite honestly whatever other garden inspiration I can get my hands on) I also enjoy perusing rose based or inspired products including soaps and lotions, artwork, and of course dried rose buds or petals. The trouble with the later has always been finding a reputable source to purchase from at an affordable price.

I am pretty sure that I have tried every rose based tea on the market, some of them I enjoy and others not so much. I usually end up adding rose water to get the perfect amount of rose flavor to satisfy my floral craving. The problem with most rose based teas is that they try so hard not to over do the rose and come off as perfumey that they tend to cover up the flavor with something stronger. Not always a bad option, but sometimes I prefer something with a stronger bouquet. I recently read an article somewhere that mentioned the strongest rose flavor can be achieved by brewing rose buds rather than  petals. I searched high and low on amazon for rosebuds and was astonished how many brands were selling packages of rose buds for culinary use. There was a wide variety of prices to go along with these as well. The one thing consistent was the negative reviews. It was about this time that I discovered Rose Dose on instagram and decided to meander over to their website. Along with their blog and recipes, their website was enough of a knowledge base to establish trust, and at $12.99 for a bag of rose buds I decided to pull the trigger.

The 2 oz bag was well packaged for shipping and the actual packaging is clean and quality looking. Inside were dozens of perfectly in-tact buds of rosa damascena still vibrantly pink. The fragrance upon opening the bag was mild but floral and upon brewing my first round of tea the experience was similar - mild but definitely floral and rosy. Although i feel that these are best brewed along with other herbs for a bit more flavor, if you are looking for something with very mild flavor you can't go wrong with brewing these solo. Also they make a really nice garnish to add to your teacup, especially as the flowers begin to absorb water and open slightly.

If you're like me and enjoy the flavor of rose or maybe you're looking for something to get you through the long cold winter, this product is an excellent option and I couldn't recommend it enough.
You can purchase your own bag at Rose Dose and for an extra 10% off use code josh10