Flowers have been used in cooking for millennia: flower cookery has been traced back to Roman times and was especially popular in the Victorian era. Today, with the interest resurgence in natural, homegrown or wild foods, edible flowers are once again delighting our senses; more and more cooks and bartenders around the globe, are using edible flowers as main ingredients in food and drinks instead of just using them as simple decorations and garnishes.

Variety and creativity
Flowers are cooks' and bartenders' favourite choice for a very simple reason: Mother Nature offers a very wide spectrum in flavor of edible flowers, that can range from bland to spicy, sweet to sharp. Flower petals differ from any other ingredients, adding a completely new dimension to recipe preparation, and allowing to prepare both simple or very complex recipes.
Another great thing about flowers is that, as no other food, they cover a wide range of colors, and allows you to create eye-appealing garnishes. Moreover you don't need to look for them in strange and expensive store: many edible flowers (like mint, rose, and pansies) either grow wild in the countryside or can be cultivated in gardens.
However, since most flowers may taste a bit strange to most people, it'simportant to introduce flowers into one's diet, one at a time, and always in small quantities: it could be a good idea to start using flowers to flavour your cocktails and drinks, in order to get used to their flavours slowly and only after that start using them in food.

Using flowers in cocktails
Flowers can be used fresh or candied, or even to scent sugar, or added as a final touch to your appetizers, adding a classy touch to aperitifs. However flowers can be simply used as garnishes, on top of glasses or frozen into ice cubes.

Some flowers, like rose and violet, can be even used alone to make syrups that can simply be used to flavour cakes and ice-creams, but you can also drink them with some soda water, or use them in cocktails like J-A Molotov. Many other flowers are used to spice wine and eau de vie: Dentellion Wine, for exemple is a well known beverage.

The most common way to use flowers, however, is to use them in infusions, or adding them to your favourite kind of tea: rose petals, dandelion, lavender, pansies and jasmine are often used to add a new refreshing touch both to hot and cold tea. All these flower-flavoured teas can be used as a base for many drinks, and are perfect ingredients for punches: Nasturtium Punch and Lavender-Mint Tea Punch are only two exemples of the infinite mixing possibilities of these beverages.
Many other flowers can be also used in various cocktails: a rose or some lavender can add a delicate new flavour to a classic cocktail: have you ever tried a Rose Petal Martini or a Violet or even a Lavender Martini? Moreover flowers can be used to create many new and original cocktails, like the Hibiscus-Flower Cooler, the Rose Petal Delight, or the Elderberry-Flower Mimosa.

Rules for using edible flowers in your drinks or food
- Always check, identify, and check again. Only eat flowers if you are positive they are edible.
- Use the Latin (botanical) name to clarify it as an edible species.
- Only eat or pick organically grown flowers.
- If you suffer with asthma, hay fever or other sinus allergies, do not eat flowers.
- Do not eat flowers picked from a roadside, they are certainly contaminated.
- Remember: Not all flowers are edible, some are poisonous.
- Share your new culinary experiences with others.
- The best time to gather edible flowers is in the early morning after the dew has evaporated.
- Look at the flower carefully and remove any tiny bugs.
- Remove the pistons and stamen from the flowers; eat only the petals (exceptions being violets, pansies, Johnny-jump-ups, honeysuckle, runner bean, pea and clover that can be eaten whole).