Morocco Land of a million spices: Traditional Flavoring Waters Part 2

Morocco Land of a million spices:

Part 4

Traditional Flavoring Waters 

Rose Flower Water

This is the sequel of my previously posted article on Orange Flower water. Although their uses are similar, but there are some differences, especially in terms of flavor. All in all, I hope you enjoy this piece and find it useful in terms of learning about Moroccan Cooking and Moroccan Culture. 

The Rose Flower Water

The Rose Flower Water is another very popular scented water often used in Moroccan cuisine, for sweets, drinks and dishes. The light aroma and flavor definitely gives an extra touch for everything it’s been added to, even if you don’t realize it.

Rose Flower water is traditionally made by simply steeping rose petals in water. Many of us know that there are types of roses the petals are which are in fact edible. Rose water is also a sort of a byproduct, basically a leftover during the stages of making rose oil. To put this simply, the roses go through a specific distillation process and at one stage Rose oil is derived from the whole liquid and the leftover is the pure Rose Water itself.

Therefore it’s no surprise that most of the rose water produced in Morocco is in fact produced in the Valley of Roses El Kelaa, about which you can read much more in my article concentrating on that beautiful place by clicking here.

 

What to use it for?

Rose petals have been used in Morocco for lots of purposes, starting from the religious to their holistic benefits , in local cosmetics and also for religious purposes. The beautiful rose flower is definitely an inspiration no matter in what shape or form we see it. The pure Rose water encompasses the healthy mineral and vitamin content of the petals with the hydrating qualities of water, also it makes the flavor light, therefore its almost untouchable when you use it as a spice, but it’s definitely a great addition to lots of meals and some people even use it to flavor milk, tea or coffee with it.  Rose Flower water is the key element of the so-called Rose Syrup which is used to flavor tons of local sweets.

Where to get it:

Needless to say that pure Rose Water is expensive even in Morocco, therefore you will only see a couple of drops being used from it on a day to day basis. Since the Rose Water became somewhat popular of course there are lots of fakes out there on the markets, therefore check well before buying a portion.

Middle Eastern stores all sell Rose water in some shape or form. The hypermarkets have them too, check for the cooking section with the oils, the rose flower water will be somewhere in that area.

In the West it is trickier to find it. Some Arab groceries may sell it tho, I believe it’s easier to get it in countries like the UK or Germany, where Arabic/Islamic population is pretty high so there are way more stores selling these unique products. You can also check out the internet but there is no trusted site I can recommend at this point.