Rose water is part of various food and cocktail recipes. It's a kitchen staple in the Middle East, India, and Asia and has a beautiful floral scent and quite an intense flavor. However, if you don't know what you're doing, it can quite quickly become overpowering. But what exactly is rose water, and how can you use it in cocktails?
Cocktails made with rose water often have a distinctive floral vibe. Therefore, you best pair it with clear spirits like vodka or gin. This way, the delicately sweet and floral notes don't get lost. And when combined with a bright rose-colored syrup, like our pink dragon fruit syrup or raspberry syrup, you can also bring some rosy color to your cocktails.
1. Rose water Gin Fizz
Ingredients:
1.5oz Dry Gin
0.75oz Lemon juice
0.75oz Rose water syrup
Top with soda water
Instructions:
- Add Dry Gin, lemon juice, and rose water syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until well chilled.
- Strain into a chilled glass with ice and top up with soda water.
The elegant flavor combination of rose and lemonade creates a bright and refreshing cocktail. This sweet and floral twist on the classic Gin Fizz is a perfect way to incorporate rose water in a mixed drink.
It uses rosewater syrup instead of simple syrup to bring floral sweetness to the cocktail. That works best with a dry but floral gin like Hendrick's or Silent Pool. If you're feeling fancy, add a few rose petals as garnish.
2. Rose & Grapefruit Gin Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz Gin
- 0.5 tsp Rose water
- 1/8 grapefruit roughly chopped
- 100 ml pink tonic water
This light and refreshing Rose & Grapefruit Gin Cocktail is super easy to make and an excellent summer twist on classic Gin and Tonic. The combination of fresh grapefruit and rose water gives this drink a sweet, floral, fruity, and tangy touch.
Plus, if you prefer an alcohol-free rose water mocktail, you can simply make it non-alcoholic by replacing your standard gin with an alcohol-free alternative.
3. Rose Water Paloma Cocktail
Ingredients
- 2 oz Blanco Tequila
- 2 oz Fresh grapefruit juice
- 1 oz Rose simple syrup
- ½ oz Rosewater
- 4 oz Grapefruit soda
If you like Paloma cocktails, you'll love this floral take. The recipe for this rosewater cocktail contains two rose elements with rose water and homemade rose syrup. It's an ideal drink if you're looking for a delicious yet unique cocktail for your next party.
The flavors of tangy grapefruit and subtle rose notes mix perfectly and complement the tequila base just nicely.
4. Rosy Rosé Champagne Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 Wedge Lemon Juice
- 1 Tbsp Rose Water
- 1 Tbsp Cranberry Juice
- 4 oz Sweet Rosé Champagne
- Food Grade Dried Rose Petals (Optional Garnish)
If you're looking for a refreshing and crisp cocktail with a subtle rose water flavor, this Rosy Rosé Champagne cocktail might be the right choice. Based on chilled sparkling rosé Champagne it's sweetened with just a bit of rosewater, colored with fresh cranberry juice, and garnished with rose petals.
You can create these elegant drinks within seconds, making them ideal drinks for a summer garden party or a wedding. Give it a try and see how tasty this concoction is.
5. Rose Water Martini
Ingredients
- ½ fl oz Dolin dry vermouth
- 2 oz Hendricks gin
- 1 ½ oz rose syrup
- Juice and zest of one grapefruit
- Splash of rose water
This classy Rose Water Martini is a bold, classic cocktail with a sweet and floral twist. It is a refreshing summer sipper and is sweetened with homemade rosewater syrup. That way, you can adjust the level of sweetness to taste.
The ingredients are gin, dry vermouth, lemon juice, sugar, and rose water. The combination of Dolin dry and Hendricks gin is greatly recommended for this martini, as their distinct citrus, herbal, floral, and white pepper notes pair perfectly.
6. Rose Water Lemon Drop Martini
Ingredients:
2,5oz Vodka
1oz Rose water
1oz Lemon juice
1 tbsp Agave syrup
sugar and rose petal mixture for rim
Instructions
- Rim your glass with the rose petal and sugar mixture.
- Then, add all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
- Strain into the prepared glass and enjoy.
This Rose Water Lemon Drop Martini is a light, delicious beverage with a flowery undertone. Rosewater is a non-alcoholic mixer created by steeping rose petals in water. It is widely used in baking, skin moisturizing, and cocktail mixing.
Again, lemon and rose to build the base of the drink. And when combined with slightly more vodka than usual and a touch of agave syrup. The result is a delicious floral take on a Lemon Drop Martini.
The lemon juice is the star of this drink; it's bright, tart, and enticing. Purchase food-grade rose petals to sprinkle on top or smash and mix with sugar to make it more exquisite. Mix it up for something other than a martini, shots, or a cosmos.
7. Pink Rose
Ingredients:
1.5 oz Gin
0.5oz Safari liqueur
1oz Lime Juice
0.75oz Homemade Pink Dragon Fruit Syrup
0.25oz Rose Water
Instructions:
- Add all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
- Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with a lime wheel.
Our take on the Pink Rose cocktail is a floral, fruity, and tropical cocktail with bright rose color. It has subtle floral notes of roses paired with tropical fruits like mango, passion fruit, and pink dragon fruit.
For the gin part, opt for a well-balanced dry gin that isn't too junipery. Bombay Sapphire and Beefeater are two great budget options, Hendricks's is a slightly more expensive but also more suitable option.
8. Raspberry Rose Floradora
The traditional Floradora recipe is a template from the 1900s and is a classic gin cocktail made with raspberry syrup, lime juice, and ginger ale. In this floral twist, a bit of rosewater helps to balance the sweet and tart flavors even better.
Besides the addition of rosewater in this drink, the homemade raspberry syrup is key. For making this, combine 1 part sugar with 1 part hot water and add 2 parts raspberries. Store the syrup in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
9. Vanilla Bean & Rosewater Vodka Martini
Ingredients
- 2.5 oz Vanilla Bean infused Vodka
- ½ oz Cassis liqueur
- 2–3 drops of pure rose water
- 2 oz Soda water
- ½ a Vanilla Bean for garnish
With only four ingredients, the vanilla bean and rosewater vodka martini is a simple and delightful springtime beverage. Use quality Vanilla Beans, carefully picked for the best quality, with a rich scent and smooth, creamy flavor.
Infusing vodka with vanilla beans is a quick and easy way to save money on more expensive brand-name flavored liquors. The vanilla bean-infused vodka complements the flowery and fragrant aromas of the rosewater and cassis liquor wonderfully. The recipe serves one, but it can easily be doubled or tripled for cocktail parties with guests.
What is Rose Water for Cocktails?
Rose water is intensely flavored water. It's made by steeping rose petals in water and mixing them with a byproduct of rose petal distillation. Rose petal distillation is a process for making rose oil, which, in turn, is used for perfumes and such.
The hydrosol part of the byproducts of this distillation ends up in rose water and creates an even more intense rose aroma and flavor.
What is Rose Water Used for?
Rose water is often used in sweet drinks and foods in Middle Eastern and Asian cuisine. Sweets like Turkish delight, Nougat, baklava, lassi, and rice pudding are great examples of using rose water to add flavor.
It is also the base of rose syrup, another cocktail ingredient that shouldn't be confused with rose hip syrup. Rose hip is the fruit of certain rose plants. Those fruits can be eaten raw, like berries but are also often used to make jams, jellies, and syrup.
Also, in alcoholic drinks and cocktails, rose water makes for a brilliant addition. Drinks that incorporate the rosy, fragrant ingredient are often sweet, floral, and not rarely bright pink.
The Original Purpose of Rose Water
Traditionally rose water is used for foods, cosmetics, and even in religious ceremonies. It's also used in cosmetics. Rose water is part of perfumes, oils, cold creams, and face wash. Especially in India, it's still commonly used as a perfume, moisturizer, or welcome treatment for guests at a wedding.
Rose water is also an element of religious ceremonies in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and others. There, rose water-based beverages are also often used to replace Champagne.
Rose Water vs. Rose Syrup
Rose syrup and rose water are not the same things. The flavored rose water is added to drinks for its aroma. Rose syrup, on the other hand, is a syrup based on rose water. It gets sweetened with sugar and spiced with bourbon vanilla and a pinch of salt.
Rose water syrup can be used for replacing regular simple syrup. Like that, you can add a floral touch to cocktail recipes like a Gin Sour or Gin Fizz.
Benefits of Rose Water
Rose water has been used for thousands of years already. Not only in foods and drinks but also for other purposes. The reason is that fragrant water made from rose petals has countless health benefits. To give you an idea of where it can help you, here's a list of rose water benefits.
- Soothing skin irritations
- Helps healing scars
- Help with sore throats
- Relieves headaches
- Reduces red skin
- Contains plenty of antioxidants
- Mood enhancer
- Helps with digestion
Usually, rose water is not harmful in any way. Potential allergies are the only thing you should check before using it.