Rose Distillery

A brewery adorned with pink petals of the Bulgarian rose.
A woman holding a green bag in a rose field.

Rose Harvesting

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.

A diagram illustrating the steam distillation process of Bulgarian rose (rosa damascena) extraction.

Rose Distillation Process

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.

A bunch of pink roses in a green bag.

Art of Distillation

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.