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What it is
The rose used in Chinese herbal practice is Rosa rugosa — not the long-stemmed florist's rose, but a low, thorny, thick-leaved shrub that flowers once a year and smells far stronger than it looks. The form grown at Pingyin is a double red cultivar, and it is the only rose the Chinese Pharmacopoeia recognises as both food and herb.
What is used is the bud, not the open flower. Once the petals fall back completely the scent has already begun to leave, which is why the whole crop is harvested in the dark.
"草稿 — 請換成你自己的話。"
— Claire, founderTerroir
The ground it grows on
Pingyin sits at 36° N on the western tail of the Tai mountains — low hills, cinnamon soil at pH 7 to 8.5, and a flowering season that lasts about six weeks.
Read note ↗Processing
From field to jar
The picking window opens at half past two in the morning and closes at six. What happens after that is a race against the oil leaving the petal.
Read note ↗Grading
How it was judged
Diameter, colour, closure, and smell. A buyer could sort a basket by eye in under a minute, and the first check was simply how wide the bud had opened.
Read note ↗In the tradition
Rose has been planted below Cuiping hill at Pingyin for more than 1,300 years, first by monks, and the county now accounts for the majority of China's rose production. In a herbal cabinet it sat in the unusual middle ground between material and flavouring — catalogued, but also steeped, candied, and folded into food.
What's in it
Contains citronellol, geraniol, nerol, and phenylethyl alcohol.
This page describes a plant and its place in Chinese herbal tradition. It is not a description of what our products do, and nothing here is medical advice.
