OT: Back From The Rose Fields

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

Back again I am. As usual, it was a nice trip. Again, met with Jim and

Robbi and their AromaTour Pilgrims ... gave them a briefing on Rose Otto

and some other aromatic treasures found here .. and some facts on Turkey

in general. Met lotsa nice folks on this trip and I was glad to be able

to finally meet Jeanine Currie from Kiwi Land.

 

Seems this year's Rosa damascena crop will top last year's ... bigger

blooms and more per bush .. which means a shorter harvest. Its likely

that the distillers will stop purchasing Rose Blossoms by the end of

June. That's when the village cooking begins and as usual, some of the

mediocre distillers will continue to purchase this cheaper, less than

quality village oil and mix it with the good stuff .. ;-(

 

As was the case last year, I contracted for the entire production of the

excess Rose Hydrosol to be produced by the Rose Grower's Association ...

in the neighborhood of three metric tons. Rose Hydrosol produced above

that amount is bottled and sold here in Turkey .. its found in all Drug

Stores and Supermarkets .. as well in various shops through the country.

 

Which brings up a point of trivia that came to mind whilst I was driving

back from Isparta. From time to time folks have asked me the percentage

of Rose Otto in a Rose Hydrosol. We don't GC Hydrosols .. we test them

periodically for contamination but not for chemical components - we just

test the Rose Otto contained in the Hydrosol. Anyway .. the Turkish

Institute of Standards requires a minimum of 1% Rose Otto in Hydrosol -

and I would expect that the Bulgarian Rose Hydrosol is about the same.

Now - if one figures the dollars and cents to that, we find that 100

kilos of Rose Hydrosol contains a kilogram of Rose Otto - huh? But a

kilo of Rose Otto costs many, many, many, many times more than 100 kilos

of Rose Hydrosol. How and why can we sell it like this?

 

Because ... after distillation and then cohobation to obtain the lion's

share of the Rose Otto, we have obtained 98% + to 99% of the Rose Otto.

IF .. IF .. we did another cohobation its possible that we could obtain

another half kilo or more of Rose Otto ... and it would be economically

feasible to do this .. the energy and labor invested would be returned.

BUT .. if we did that second cohobation, we would retrieve a Rose Otto

that had been exposed to a bit too much heat .. a very low quality Rose

Otto that would not have the odor we are used to.

 

Why did I begin to think of this trivia? Because during my marketing

survey, I learned that there are a couple of small distillers that will

not be producing (or not selling) Rose Hydrosol this year. Don't gotta

be a rocket scientist to figure out why they are not - huh?

 

Anyway .. back I am and though I'd like to say I'm happy about it, it

just ain't so .. ;-p I'd much rather be out and about than on my butt

in front of this PC. But I have something else to look forward to in a

week or so .. gonna head to the Southeast and check out the wildgrown

Rosemary crop .. then over to the West a bit and roll around in the wild

Oregano and Myrtle. If you ever wondered why dawgs like to roll around

in the grass, just roll around in some of the wildgrown aromatic plants

and you'll stop wondering!

 

Y'all keep smiling, Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

Bulk/Wholesale/Retail GC Tested EO, Rose Otto, Hydrosols and other nice

things shipped to you from Friendsville, MD. Resellers can enter my

wholesale site by asking me for the magic words.