If you have a Damask rose in your garden you probably appreciate it for its lovely flowers and heady scent, but perhaps not for its thorns. You may or may not appreciate that it has several edible parts, and is used to produce both rose water and ‘Attar of Roses’. And you may not know that the buds can be used to make a herbal tea – I didn’t until the nice people at Choi Time and Fuel My Blog sent me some of their teas to review.

I have chosen to start with the Damask rose tea because it is just so pretty :) This is what it looks like in the bottom of Pete’s giant mug, which I have used in lieu of a teapot so I can see what’s happening.

Damask rose buds

As soon as you open the packet, the rose scent becomes obvious. After infusing in water that’s just off the boil for a couple of minutes, they look far more ethereal:

Infusing

I just left the rosebuds (which are sourced from the Fujian province of China) in while the water cooled down enough for me to drink it – in fact, they’re still there as I’m sipping. The rose scent is still very much in evidence, and the resulting tea has a very gentle rose flavour – it’s very pleasant and something I would sip over a period of time (Pete’s mug holds about a litre!) rather than gulping it down like a regular cup of tea.

Apparently Damask rose tea is excellent at relieving anxiety and stress, which I’m sure most of us could use at some point or other, will boost circulation and give my skin a healthy glow – we’ll have to wait and see on that one ;)

The rose buds are good for 3-5 infusions, so a pair could keep you in tea all day long. I can see this being a real treat – it’s pretty, gorgeously scented, fun and healthy