Do you have a recipe that includes rose water or rose syrup and you’d like to make your own? Have you gone foraging and now have edible and herbal flower specimens like honeysuckle and clover that you’d like to use? Here is a simple recipe for an edible flower syrup that you can use in so many different ways. 
How Do You Make Rose Syrup at Home?
Make rose syrup yourself is a simple matter of boiling roses in water and sugar to extract their flavor. A detailed recipe for making rose syrup at home follows below. You can do this with any herb or edible flower combination. Listed below are several edible herbal flowers that you could use in the recipe highlighted in this article to make a delicious syrup.
FYI, the following recipe is one you can find in our book, Herbal Flower Recipes.
<<<—Here’s the link to grab your own copy: Herbal Flower Recipes—>>>
Common Edible Herbal Flowers
This recipe is made with rose petals, clover flowers and honeysuckle blossoms. However, there are any number of edible herbal flowers you can use. Here’s a quick list of common herbal flowers (petals are typically used in cooking):
- roses
- violets
- clover
- honeysuckle
- borage
- calendula
- scented geranium
- nasturtiums
- lavender
- phlox
- sunflowers
- squash
- chive
- dandelion
- forsythia
For ideas on how to use these herbal flowers simply click on each one and it will open to a new page with a recipe or tutorial.
Herbal Flower Rose Syrup Recipe
Use this combination of rose petals, honeysuckle blooms and cover flowers to make a subtle and sweet herbal flower syrup for baking or Saturday morning pancakes.
I have a lovely coconut macaroon recipe that calls for rose syrup. The last time I made it, I added scented geranium (pelargoniums) and lemon verbena. You can use both the leaves and blooms of scented geranium in this macaroon recipe, or this herbal syrup recipe.
Here’s a quick tutorial video and the recipe is below:
Herbal Flower Rose Syrup
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Rose petals
- 1/2 Cup Clover blossoms
- 1/4 Cup Honeysuckle blooms
- 1/2-1 Cup Water
- 1 Cup Sugar - I used erythritol Organic cane, xylitol and even raw sugar would work, though it will give the syrup a caramel color.
- 1/2 tsp Food dye, optional
Instructions
- Snip or pinch green matter from the bottom of the clover, roses and honeysuckle. Use only petals of roses; remove pistils with pollen that can lend a bitter flavor to the syrup. If you want the pollen included for its health benefits, leave the pistils.
- Place blossoms in an heavy bottomed sauce pot and just cover with water. Gently stir the petals to weigh them down into the water. Cover pot with a lid.
- Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Allow to the blooms to steep covered in the hot water for at least 10 minutes. This step basically creates a blossom tea.
- Strain the spent blossoms out and place the blossom tea back into the pot. Add the sugar.
- Stir frequently as you heat the burner to medium high heat, melting the sugar.
- Simmer well for 10 minutes and remove from heat.
- Add color, if desired. Stir well.
- Use immediately or store in an air tight container in the fridge. Use within one month. The syrup may crystallize at it sits in the fridge over time. To melt the crystals, simply reheat before use.
You can leave the syrup a pale blush color or use a natural dye to give it a darker color. There are many natural dyes available online and in your local health food store.
Is Rose Syrup Sweet?
Yes and no.
Anything made with sugar is going to naturally be sweet but the rose syrup has a light flavor that can easily integrate into many recipes. So, while the syrup is sweet, it’s not overpowering.
What’s the Difference Between Rose Syrup and Rose Water?
Great question! The main difference between the two is sugar.
Rose water is made by steeping rose petals in water on a low boil. After the first batch of petals is used up (they change color), then you add another handful of petals until the water is highly concentrated with both rose fragrance and color. Rose water is often used in baking, especially in countries in the Middle East and even India.
Rose syrup is rose water with the added dimension of sugar. Flower flavored syrups are often used to flavor cold and hot drinks. It can be used other ways, too, as highlighted in the list below. Enjoy!
Uses for Herbal Flower Syrup
Before you even process these flowers into syrup, you may want to know about all the other amazing things you can do with them. For health and wellness, as well as other culinary uses, please visit these posts:
Herbal Flower and Rose Syrup List
Here are some herbal resources and uses for flower syrup.
Using White Clover for Food and Medicine
How to Eat a Wild Rose: Roses for Food and Medicine
Herbal Tea Italian Sodas
Opeynopes: Cold Oatmeal Cereal
Herbal syrup works as a topping for cereals and hot breakfasts.
Tropical Baked Oatmeal
Rose Saffron Lollipops for National Lollipop Day
You can also use your rose syrup in this recipe from Desserts First Girl. (I omit the corn syrup and just use my rose syrup in its place.)
Gulabi Kalakand – How to make Gulabi Kalakand using ricotta
Rose water and syrup are both common ingredients called for in Asian and Indian dessert recipes. The last time we celebrated Diwali (an Indian fall festival of lights), we made this recipe from Easy Cooking With Molly. (FYI, I substituted the canned condensed milk for this homemade version. I also used full fat ricotta.)
Interested in growing herbs but are short on space or new to them? Start with a few basic but wonderful herbs and grow them in containers! To learn how, please consider our book, The Potted Herb. This book outlines and educates you on several basic culinary and wellness herbs, including how to grow them and use them. To learn more, click below:
Love this idea of adding it to pancakes. I can’t wait to dig in!
Thank you, Kelly – I hope you enjoy it!
Oh we typically like to do family breakfasts on the weekend and this sounds like a perfect addition! Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you for stopping by, Emily! Waffles would be perfect with this syrup – Father’s Day is coming up…
I love this idea! I am looking for an herbal syrup for the summer to hide my kids’ cod liver oil in. During the fall/winter, I make elderberry syrup and hide it in there, but for the summer I think I will try this one! Thank you for sharing!
Mwuahaha! So glad I could help you in your nefarious cod liver oil hiding! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Chelsea!
What a great idea! I didn’t know you could do this with wild flowers. It sounds amazing! Thank you so much for sharing
So glad it was helpful, Amanda! Thank you for stopping by!
So cool! Everything with roses just works for me!
Ha – me, too! We can be friends, Vladka. 🙂