I’m not sure when the tradition started but there was a time when my mom and I would go to The Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong and have afternoon tea. Out of all the delectable treats we enjoyed our favorite part was the Rose Petal Jam they served with their scones. We soon learned that they sold jars of it in their bakery. When my parents moved back to the states my dad still made trips to Hong Kong on an annual basis. He was almost always given the task of bringing home some of that jam!

It probably took far longer than it should have for this to occur to us, but one day we realized: You can find just about anything on the internet! There had to be a recipe out there for Rose Petal Jam. Why should we wait for dad to bring back expensive jam from Hong Kong when their yard was full of roses? We soon had several versions printed off, picked the one to try, and set to work harvesting those roses. I have made this jam many times now and it still surprises me how that beautiful rose scent translates so completely to taste. It is a little piece of heaven in your mouth. It is perfection with scones and Devonshire Cream.

The four biggest things to be mindful of when making Rose Petal Jam are:

  1. Make sure you use roses that have never been treated with chemicals of any kind. I have heard there are organic farmers who never use pesticides on their flowers but I had a difficult time tracking one down. None of the florists in our area knew of any. Your best bet is to find friends or family who have rose bushes.
  2. Before the Vanilla Peach Jam recipe I posted, this is the only jam I’ve ever made, so I’m no jam expert, but I have heard that different pectins work in different ways (?). Just to be safe, I always use SureJell fruit pectin in this recipe.
  3. Scent=Flavor. You want roses with a deep scent!
  4. Obviously, the color of your roses will dictate the color of your jam. There are as many possibilities of colors for your jam as there are colors of well-scented roses. 🙂

As I lamented the total absence of organic flowers in Utah to Jenny the other day she perked up, “Our church offices have roses out front! I don’t think they’ve ever been sprayed with pesticides.” One phone call to the landscaper later I was giddy to have found a source…and a little incredulous there were still viable blooms. It seemed awfully late in the year for roses. However, last night we stopped by, clipped some blooms, and today I was able to make a beautiful batch of Rose Petal Jam!

Rose Petal Jam*

  • 1 cup fresh rose petals
  • 1 1/2 cups water, divided
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 package pectin (Sure Jell)
  1. Puree rose petals, 3/4 cup water and lemon juice in blender until smooth.
  2. Slowly add sugar.
  3. Blend till all sugar has dissolved; (leave in blender) Stir 1 package pectin (ie. Sure Jell) into 3/4 cup water, bring to a boil, and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour mixture into blender with rose petal mixture until well blended. 
  4. Do this very quickly – it sets up FAST!! Pour into jelly jars.
  5. Let set for 6 hours, till firm.
  6. Will keep one month in refrigerator. 

This recipe freezes well.

This makes about 3 cups of jam.

This little jam jar was my grandmother’s and Rose Petal Jam is my favorite thing to serve in it! 🙂

*This recipe is from http://www.food.com