What if we told you that flowers growing in your garden are a lot more than just something pretty to look at? These days, flowers aren’t just something to wear in your hair or display on your end table. You can also drink them! Floral-infused drinks are becoming one of the fastest-growing trends. From teas and sodas to sprucing up your summer cocktails, drinks with edible flowers will be sure to please even the pickiest of palates.
Here’s the bonus: you don’t have to go to some fancy cafe or bar to obtain these floral favorites- we’re going to show you how to do it all on your own. So step out into your garden and grab some lavender and rose petals as we dive right into our favorite floral-infused drink recipes.
Lattes Just Got Lovelier
Lavender has long been known for its calming effects. From lotions to lattes, these lovely purple blooms are featured in almost everything! So if you want to just chill out and relax before the start of a busy day, then this recipe is for you! Here’s what you’ll need to create your own lavender syrup:
- ¼ cup dried lavender (check out this link for directions on how to dry your own)
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup plus three tablespoons of water
Add ½ cup water and ¼ cup lavender to the saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Turn down heat and simmer for three minutes. Remove from the heat and let steep for 20 minutes. With a fine net strainer, strain out flowers. You can go ahead and throw out the petals. Grab a clean saucepan and add ½ cup of sugar and three tablespoons of water. Bring water to a gentle boil, stir until sugar dissolves. Let simmer for four minutes and then stir in your lavender liquid.
Whisk to combine, then remove from heat and let cool. Place cooled liquid into a glass storage container and keep refrigerated until ready to use. When you are ready for your latte, simply add two tablespoons of the lavender liquid to your mug then pour in your hot coffee, add foam and garnish with some dried lavender and your lavender latte is good to go!
Sip an Elegant Elderflower Soda
Elderflower is especially wonderful because it pulls double duty as a probiotic! With their slight lemony scent with just a hint of banana and peach, what is not to love about this elegant flower? Read on to learn how to make your own elderflower soda! Here is what you are going to need:
- Six cups of elderflower blooms (Warning: remove the thickest stems first, these are toxic!)
- ½ gallon filtered water
- Sugar (we recommend locally sourced organic honey!)
- ¼ cup Whey (you can easily get this off of your yogurt, watch this video for a how-to)
- One lemon
- Large glass container
- Swing-Top glass bottles
- Kitchen funnel
First, put your flowers into a large bowl and give them a gentle and fast rinse with water. These flowers are delicate, so be careful! Boil enough water to cover your flowers. Then pour the heated water onto your blooms until completely covered. Grab a clean dish towel and cover the bowl. Let the flowers steep for 48 hours. After two days, strain the flowers out of the bowl until you’re left with an elderflower tea. Slice your lemon and squeeze both ends into the bowl. Then add your honey. Fun Fact: the sugars will be digested in the liquid to create the fizz that elderflower soda is known for!
Next, pour the liquid into a glass jar. Add three tablespoons of whey. Cover loosely. You’ll want to leave some room for the fermentation process, or you’ll have a giant, explosive mess on your hands. Place the jar in a safe place in your cupboard. Now you wait. Keep checking back every few days and give it a little taste test. The whole process should take about one week for a small batch and two weeks for a larger one. As soon as it tastes just a little too sweet, it’s time to move your creation to its final home. It’s very important to use the swing top bottles we told you about, as anything else could cause a small explosion. Your safety is our number one priority, so here’s an excellent guide to bottling homemade sodas.
Now that you’ve read up a bit funnel the elixir into the bottles and leave about one-inch space from the neck to the top of the bottle. Let your bottles sit for two more days to really develop that fizz. After that, it’s time to taste your creation. Warning! You will definitely want to use a controlled gas release method when opening your bottles. Your soda is now extremely bubbly! This means opening the bottle and letting a little bit out, closing it, letting more out, etc. until the bubbles get smaller. Your batch should be consumed within one week, as the fermentation process continues on, making these pretty gross and undrinkable after seven days. Pro -Tip: Save a little of your old batch to culture your next one!
Cozy Rose Petal Tea
What is even better than taking time to smell the roses? Why, drinking them in your tea, of course! Adding rose to your tea is a sure way to ease some tension and lift your spirits. Rose petals are a natural sedative known for their pain-relieving abilities. They are the perfect all-natural remedy for those pesky menstrual cramps and can even help regulate your cycle. Sign us up! Sorry, prego beauties, you have to sit this one out, as it can cause uterine contractions. This recipe is super easy to follow, so you’ll be curled up with your cat on the couch in no time at all. We hope you enjoy this tea as much as we do! You are going to need the following:
- Two cups of fresh, pesticide-free roses (our rose Bouqs are chemical-free and farm fresh!)
- Three cups filtered water
- Optional: locally sourced raw honey, for sweetener
- Tea cups (we adore this elegant set from Wayfair)
First, place your rose petals into a colander and give them a good rinse under running water; your kitchen sink will do just fine. Be sure you get both the front and back of each petal just in case a small bug or two hitched a ride home with you. Fill a saucepan with three cups of water and add the rose petals. Boil the mixture for five minutes. Using oven mitts (this pan is going to be very hot) strain the water carefully into your cups. Sweeten with honey, grab your favorite Gillian Flynn novel, and chill out!
Get Fancy With a Floral Cocktail
Flower-infused cocktails are just lovely to look at as they are to drink! And you don’t need to be a bartender to wow your besties on your next girls’ night in. So prep the fruit and cheese plates, stream up the entire season of GLOW, and get ready to mix up something wonderful!
First up is the Golden Jasmine Martini. The Jasmine-infused martini will make you feel exotic and refined with its golden color and vibrant jasmine aroma. Girls’ night just got a lot more girly with this next drink, the Rose Infused Lemon Drop Martini. Props to Cookswithcocktails.com for coming up with a concoction that’s even better than the original! To add some luxury to your cocktail, we suggest adorning the glasses with DIY Sugared Rose Petals, that you can totally get to eat. This next drink comes from our favorite #girlboss, Celebrity chef Rachael Ray, the Lavanda. Emphasis on the ‘ahhh’ because you will sink back into your seat with the very first sip.
For more floral cocktail ideas to stock your bar cart with, visit Thethings.com for some must-try recipes.
Make a Marvelous Mocktail
We see you over there teetotalers. We didn’t forget you, we swear! Here are a few ‘mocktail’ ideas to get you sippin pretty all year round!
Check out the Thyme Lemonade from Oh The Lovely Things. We really love this Lavender and ginger, with garlic, hot toddy from TheKiwiCook. We feel warm and relaxed just by reading the recipe requirements. We have one more for you! Try this simple Rose Lemonade recipe by With a Spin to jumpstart any afternoon.
With all of the drinks with flowers options that you have, where do you even begin? May we suggest starting with the first one and working your way all the way down the list? Along the way, you might just unveil your inner mixologist and come up with your own taste bud tingling recipe. Don’t forget to tag your creation with #thebouqsco to share your creations with us!
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