Rose Tea

Method:

Take a bowl and add water into it. Take rose flowers and pluck petals. Take the petals and discard the stalks and pollen of rose flowers. Add rose petals into the water in the bowl and wash them well. Take the washed rose p[etals into a plate. Here i am using an electric kettle to heat water. Pour 175ml water into electric kettle and switch it on to heat water. Meanwhile take a small pot and add black tea leaves and washed rose petals. When water boils in the electric kettle, it automatically switches off. Wait for 2 minutes and pour hot water into the small pot. Cover the pot with a lid and allow to steep for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes again pour 500ml water into electric kettle and switch it on to heat water. Squeeze quarter of a lemon into the pot containing steeped mixture. Tea when placed in a ceramic kettle stays hot for longer period. Place a tea strainer into the ceramic kettle and transfer the contents in the small pot into the strainer. Observe that the colour and flavour of rose got transferred into the water. When kettle switches off wait for 2 minutes and then pour the hot water into the ceramic kettle. Rose tea is ready---place lid on the ceramic kettle and serve hot. Bring DESI rose flowers and freeze them to have rose tea as and when desired. Take a tray and spread a parchment paper into it. Place the rose flowers in the tray in a single layer with little gap between them. Place this tray in freezer. Next day remove the tray from freezer and observe that the flowers are fully frozen holding the shape. Carefully place the frozen roses into an airtight box and cover with lid and lock it. Place the rose box in freezer and store. As and when desired take few frozen roses and take the petals and wash them and make rose tea. Place the tea kettle in a tray along with two cups. Pour rose tea into cups and serve immediately. Rose flowers have high vitamin C content and thus rose tea is good for health. The antioxidants in rose tea clears toxins and heat from body. Make this healthy rose tea and enjoy its benefits and flavour with your family members and friends.

Points To Observe:

Use DESI roses to make rose tea. DESI roses are light pink in color and have a good fragrance. The other dark pink rose flower has a bright color but has less fragrance----also when tea made with such flowers are tasteless (PASARU VASANA VASTAYI) as this fragrance is different from the DESI rose fragrance. So to make tea or essence or making rose water, use only DESI roses which are light pink in color.

Use only petals but not the green stem and the pollen to make this tea---we get fragrance only from petals---if other things are added we get bitter (PASARU VASANA) taste.

Actually to make rose tea one need not add black tea leaves but to give the tea a light color we are adding a tiny quantity of black tea leaves.

Small amount of lemon juice when added to the steeped tea enhances the colour of tea. Black tea leaves when steeped give out dark colour to the tea and lemon juice dilutes that colour to make a light brown colored tea. And we have added rose petals while steeping tea which gives a nice flavor to the tea.

One can heat entire amount water in a bowl on stove top and boil the water. Then add black tea leaves and rose petals and stir and cover the bowl with lid and allow to steep in the entire water. Then add lemon juice and strain the prepared rose tea and pour into cups and serve. I prefer to steep in small amount of water first so that the essence gets steeped into that water---it is the decoction. Then as and when family members are all ready add some hot water to the steeped tea and have it hot. Even the steeped tea has cooled down by the time family members gather one can have hot tea in this method. One can follow any method which suits them.

It is difficult to get DESI rose flowers in the market. We only see the hybrid variety flowers which are very attractive with different colours. But these hybrid color roses are flavorless to make tea. So go to a flower market and enquire for DESI GULAB or GUWAHATI GULAB and get the light pink coloured roses. Get some 15 to 20 DESI roses and spread them in a single layer in a tray lined with parchment paper---do not wash the flowers. Place the tray in deep freezer and freeze these flowers. Take the frozen flowers and place them in a box and cover with a lid. Place this box in freezer till use. When we wish to make rose tea, bring few flowers and remove petals. Add the frozen petals in a strainer and wash with water---the petals would be washed and thawed at the same time. Then use them to make rose tea.

Make natural tea with the things available in market to bring out natural flavors than using the synthetic flavored tea bags---there is wide difference in taste of these two different teas.

Important Point:

One can also make rose tea without adding black tea leaves. Then the colour of the tea is very mild --- almost transparent. Not only that black tea leaves balances some of the negative effects of rose flowers, especially when the pollen laden stalk is also used. When rose tea is made by steeping just rose petals, pollen & stalks and taken body gets stiffened (OLLU PATTESTUNDI----this is my practical experience). But rose tea when made adding black tea leaves is OK. Excess is always not good --- so make tea in a reasonable way and enjoy the taste and benefits of rose flowers.

Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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