TAIF — A symbol of beauty and grace, the Taif rose also holds a significant place in the governorate’s history, with its vibrant pink hues and sweet scent attracting international visitors. The iconic flower even inspired an Indian pilgrim to help establish the governorate’s first rose factory.The story of Taif’s century-old rose factory and its rose distillation methods has been passed down from generation to generation, preserving the secrets that have shaped the identity of this heritage product.
A Taif native, Abdulrahman bin Humaid Al-Qurashi, recounted to the Saudi Press Agency that the story began with his grandfather, who used to sell Taif roses to pilgrims, where their quality caught the attention of one of the pilgrims coming from India, who promised to bring him a special copper pot for distilling roses in the following season.Al-Qurashi says: “The pilgrim fulfilled his promise and brought the copper pot, which we still have today for more than a hundred years,” noting that his grandfather began using it to cook roses to extract only rose water, until a discovery changed the course of the work, when he managed to extract rose oil for the first time.
He added that his grandfather used to suffer from crop spoilage in some seasons, but the use of the copper pot contributed to the development of rose products, which began with rose water and then evolved into producing the more expensive rose oil. He indicated that their family is considered the first to practice cooking roses, as his grandfather Abdullah was among the first to do so in the Green Valley between the Al-Hada mountains.
