As you know, I love to visit ethnic food markets. Recently I discovered that my favorite SE Asian market carries dried rosebuds and something I hadn’t seen before: bael fruit.

Bael fruit is known by many names: Bengal quince, golden apple, Japanese bitter orange, stone apple, and wood apple. Native to India, it is often used in a popular summer drink.

The package I found was from Thailand, though, so I dug into how it is used there and mixed it with the roses.

How to Make  the Tea

Find yourself some dried bael fruit and roses, as well as rose water. Southeast Asian markets are a good place to find bael and roses.  Middle eastern markets for rose water.

In Thailand, bael fruit is traditionally roasted over coals and steeped on its own. For an authentic flavor, place 1 cup of bael fruit slices on a baking sheet and cook in the oven under a broiler for one minute on each side.

Wrap the 1 cup of dried bael fruit and 1 cup of dried roses in muslin or a tea strainer and steep for 10 minutes in 2 quarts boiling water.

Drain the liquid from the muslin bag and repeat the steeping process, placing the muslin in a new container so you keep the water as hot as possible.

Squeeze out excess liquid from the muslin, pour all liquids into a gallon jar, add the juice of one large orange.

*If you can’t find dried roses, you can use other dried fruit (it concentrates the flavors and sugars), fresh herbs, and edible flowers for a summery fruit tea instead. Or, add 1-2 teaspoons of rose water (not syrup) depending on how strong you want the rose flavor to be. You might find rose water at a Middle Eastern grocery market.