ROSE DISTILLATION

Alteya’s plantations and distillery allows us to maintain our status as a leading grower and distiller of pure organic Bulgarian Rose Oil, Rose Flower Water and other essential oils and flower waters. On Alteya’s plantations, the cultivation, harvesting and distillation are strictly controlled and extensive laboratory testing is conducted on every step to ensure that our products are exceeding industry standards.

ROSE DISTILLATION PROCESS

The rose bushes are very prolific plants. They keep blooming and producing rose buds for few weeks which means picking every day. Picking roses is a very hard and labor consuming process, done solely by hand. Also, timing is essential because to get the highest quality rose oil, the fields have to be harvested before the sun shines too brightly and evaporates the precious flowers’ oil. After the workers have finished picking the roses for the day, the fresh blossoms are taken to the distillery where the distillation process immediately takes place. The rose blossoms are placed in a special distillation still. Then a stream of low-pressure steam is discharged through the fresh blossoms to release the essential oil into the vapor.
The aromatic vapor is then condensed by cooling the coil. The third stage of the process is the oil separation, where the essential oil is easily separated from the water because of the difference in density.

Roses are very delicate flowers and it is very difficult but important to preserve all their valuable therapeutic properties. Alteya’s improved distillation process is complex and expensive to perform, however it ensures higher quality, therapeutic grade rose oil.