Rose Hips
Rose Hips at a glance
- Botanical Name
- Rosa canina
- Family
- Rosaceae
- Origin
- Europe and western Asia
- Part Used
- Fruit
- Note Position
- Heart, tart
Aroma Profile
Soft tart fruit with muted floral warmth. Rose hips carry a gentle, slightly tangy fruitiness with a quiet floral background inherited from the rose, subtle and rounded rather than sharp.
- Tart
- Fruity
- Soft
- Floral
- Rounded
- Dry
Historical Uses
Rose hips are the fruit of the rose plant and have been used across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia for centuries. In Scandinavian and Eastern European tradition, rose hip soup and preserves are a long-standing culinary staple. Rose hips were used across the Arab world and in medieval European herbalism as a nutritious food and a source of tart, fruity flavor. During World War II, rose hip syrup was distributed in Britain as a source of vitamin C when citrus was scarce, making it one of the best-documented wartime food traditions in the country. Rose hips also appear in Turkish and Persian culinary traditions in jams, teas, and sweets.
Folklore & Trade
In 1941 Britain sent its children into the hedgerows. German submarines had cut off the citrus imports, rose hips were known to be an unusually good source of vitamin C, and the Ministry of Food organised a national collection: schools, scout troops, and Women's Institute branches were paid by the pound for hips gathered from wild dog rose, which grows in every hedge in the country and belongs to nobody. Hundreds of thousands of bottles of rose hip syrup a year came out of it, distributed free to infants, and the scheme ran well past the end of the war. An entire British generation grew up on a flavour that came from a roadside plant nobody had bothered to farm.
Modern Uses
Rose hips appear in specialty teas, jams, confectionery, natural skincare, and craft aromatics. In a blend, they contribute a soft, tart fruitiness that adds a subtle warmth and roundness distinct from the sharper character of citrus.
From the Apothecary
Rose hips are how you get rose into a blend without getting rose. Actual rose is enormous, expensive, and will dominate anything it touches, and there are days when what you want is a quiet cousin of it: a soft tartness with the flower somewhere behind, present but not performing. In Compassion it gives the peach blossom something to lean on that will not outshine it.
Pairs With
Found In
Common Questions
What do rose hips smell like?
Rose hips smell softly tart and fruity with a muted floral warmth inherited from the rose itself. The character is rounded rather than sharp, closer to dried fruit than to fresh citrus. It is quieter and drier than most fruit notes.
Do rose hips smell like roses?
Only faintly, and that is the point of using them. Rose hips are the fruit rather than the flower, so the floral character sits far back behind a soft tartness. Where rose absolute would take over a blend, rose hips add the same family of warmth without the volume.
Which blend uses rose hips?
Rose hips are in Compassion, alongside peach blossom and pink peppercorn, where they supply gentle fruit underneath the florals. They are not one of the seven base herbs. You can add them to a custom blend in the builder.
The historical and traditional information presented on this page is for educational and cultural interest only. Tom Yam Yadom products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition. Ingredient histories reflect traditional and cultural uses across various societies and are not claims about the properties of our products.