Orange Blossom

Orange blossom — fleur d'oranger — sits at the heart of Mediterranean perfumery; in PREMIEREPEAU's Insuline Safrine it bridges saffron's metallic edge to the gourmand base.

Orange blossom comes from the flowers of the bitter orange tree (Citrus aurantium subsp. amara). The bitter orange is a hybrid, a cross between the pomelo and the wild type mandarin orange. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been spread by humans to many parts of the world. Petitgrain bigarade oil is distilled from the same botanical species as neroli but has its own characteristically unique aroma. Petitgrain oil is distilled from the leaves and sometimes the twigs and branches of the tree, whereas neroli is distilled from the blossoms and bitter orange oil is typically cold pressed from the rinds of the fruits.

Neroli, Orange Blossom and Orange Flower Water

The difference between neroli and orange blossom is a result of the different extraction processes used to obtain the oil from the blooms. Orange flower water is a clear aromatic by-product of the distillation of fresh bitter-orange blossoms for their essential oil. Orange blossom water is also extracted from the same blossom as neroli.

Composition

A neroli oil from the flowers of trees in Northern Greece had linalool (29.14%), β-pinene (19.08%), limonene (12.04%), trans-β-ocimene (6.06%) and (E)-farnesol (5.14%) as its major compounds. Sesquiterpenes made up 7.67% of that oil. Methyl anthranilate, an ester of anthranilic acid, occurs naturally in neroli. Neroli can cause sensitisation due to a high content of aromatic terpenes such as linalool, limonene, farnesol, geraniol and citral. The peel oil of the same Greek trees is almost entirely monoterpene hydrocarbons (98.30%), mainly limonene, while oxygenated monoterpenes dominate the flower and leaf oils. In a test of antioxidant activity, the oils of old leaves came first, followed by those of the flowers, young leaves and peel. Petitgrain bigarade oil contains linalyl acetate (45%), linalool (20%), β-pinene (<10%), α-terpineol (6%), geranyl acetate (<5%) and cis-β-ocimene (<5%).

Sourcing

Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt are the leading producers of neroli. The Nabeul region, on the Cap Bon peninsula, is the leader in the production of sour orange flowers in Tunisia. The 2026 harvest of bitter orange flowers in the Nabeul region reached nearly 2,500 tonnes, and about 1.4 tonnes of neroli essential oil were intended for export. Each spring, notably between March and April, thousands of Tunisian families pick the flowers by hand. Locally the blossoms are also processed into orange flower water, which is used in traditional pastries and drinks.

Culinary and traditional uses

Orange flower water has traditionally been used as an aromatizer in many Mediterranean traditional dessert dishes. Examples are the gibassier and pompe à l'huile in France, the Roscón de Reyes in Spain and the pastiera in Italy. In Europe it flavors madeleines, in Mexico little wedding cakes and pan de muerto, and it goes into cocktails such as the Ramos Gin Fizz. In Arab variants of baklava it is often mixed with the sweet syrup. In Malta and many North African and Middle Eastern countries it is also used as a medicine for stomach ache. The flowers themselves are used in teas.

History

By the end of the 17th century, Anne Marie Orsini, duchess of Bracciano and princess of Nerola, Italy, introduced the essence of bitter orange tree as a fashionable fragrance by using it to perfume her gloves and her bath. Since then, the term "neroli" has been used to describe this essence. The bitter orange spread from its native ranges of South China and Southeast Asia via India and Iran to the Islamic world as early as 700 AD. Petitgrain gets its name, French for "little grain", from the small unripe green fruits from which it was once extracted.

This note in PREMIEREPEAU. Insuline Safrine. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.