Flower Confidential
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It’s hard to find a good balance when trying to answer questions that range from ‘why hasn’t anyone created a blue rose’ to ‘how can we eliminate worker exploitation in a billion dollar business?’ Amy Stewart does her best, covering the past, present, and future of the flower industry with an empathetic and non-judgemental eye. It would be easy to fall into an almost salacious approach juxtaposing the beauty of cut flowers with the industry’s seedy underbelly but Stewart steers clear. She starts with the history of the Star-Gazer Lily, a flower that kicked off the modern era of designer flowers. It acts as a convenient entry point to a topic most of us are only vaguely aware of. Did you know that cut flowers have lost their scent over time as they’ve been bred to last longer in the vase? Or that the increased trend of out-patient surgeries has put a noticeable dent in
local florists' profit as fewer people send bouquets to hospital rooms? Stewart does her absolute best to hit each aspect of the floral industry as she goes through the book, so it’s understandable that some topics feel too surface-level.
I read this for a book club, which is why I picked it up despite a lack of prior interest in cut flowers. I won’t read it again but I did enjoy the journey. It was consistently engaging and sparked a new interest in flowers - I hope to find a few deeper dives in future. Perhaps most surprisingly, I now buy myself bouquets to have at home!
I paired this with a rose water lemon drop. In all honesty, it was just the first rose based cocktail I could find. Turns out, it was a real winner! The rose water cut the sweet of the lemon drop and it ended up being a wonderfully sippable drink. This is one I’ll definitely make again.
Rose Water Lemon Drop
3 oz vodka
2 oz rose water (this seems like a lot, I know. Trust the process)
1 oz lemon juice
1 T Agave syrup (I eyeballed this and was probably closer to a teaspoon, but I don’t like sweet drinks)
Sugar and lemon to rim
Cut a lemon slice and run it along the rim of the glass. Pour sugar into a plate and dip the rim gently into the sugar. Combine the rest of the ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake until its cold. Then shake some more because the agave always takes longer to incorporate than you think it will. Pour the cocktail into the sugar-rimmed glass. Garnish with a lemon slice and serve! (I also garnished with a rose but I picked it from my garden and am confident its safe since I don’t use any chemicals in my yard. Please don’t stick a random flower in your drink.)
