Björn’s Honey Rose Petal Lemonade

Ingredients:
⅔ cup pink lemon juice (If you can’t find pink lemons, regular lemons or other citrus fruit also work great.)
½ cup organic rose petals, preferably from your or a friend’s garden
½ cup Björn’s Colorado Traditional Honey
Ice and/or sparkling water to taste

Using rose petals in food is an age-old tradition and it can be a fun way to get some more out of those lovelies in your garden. I do think using organic roses is a good idea, as it’s hard to get pesticides out of things like petals. I also think that garden or wild roses have a lot more flavor and aroma than a store bought long stem roses. Garden roses are often just more sweet and fragrant then what I see in stores and florists. I also like using colored roses, especially pink ones, in my lemonade as some of the color disperses in the lemon juice.

The process of making the lemonade is simple, and once you know how, you can make a glass or a pitcher at a time, depending on need and how many lemons life has given you.

Just squeeze the lemon juice through a kitchen strainer into a glass measuring cup. Add the rose petals. Let soak for 30 min. to overnight. I even leave my lemon juice out on the counter to soak, but if you prefer to store in the refrigerator, that will work too.

Once the lemon juice has infused with rose petals, strain them out and pour lemon juice into the measuring cup that you measured your honey into. Stir the lemon juice into the honey. It will take some time for the honey to dissolve, but keep stirring, it will eventually go in. If this is too time-consuming, add a tablespoon of boiling water to the mixture and it will combine much quicker.

Once you have your sweetened lemon juice, pour it over ice in a larger container like a glass pitcher or big mason jar. You’ll have to decide how strong you want the lemonade and that will dictate how much water or ice you need. Generally, you’d want double the amount of ice to liquid. Go with less ice to start, it’s easier to add more ice than take it out. Also, if you are using sparkling water, note that the lemon juice can make it bubble so some people like to add it after they pour the juice over the ice. You can also use still water.