Neroli

Neroli is a flavouring that can be obtained from blossoms of bitter or sweet oranges through water distillation. Bitter orange blossoms are considered the best to use, and this is true Neroli. Neroli from sweet oranges is "Neroli petalae", cheaper, and not considered as good.

It is mostly used in perfumes. It is used only to a very small degree in food flavourings, though it is edible.

The writer Mark Pendergast, in his "For God, Country and Coca-Cola" (Scribners: 1993) postulates that one of the secret ingredients in Coca-Cola is Neroli Oil (along with Orange Oil.)

Neroli is very expensive. Pure Neroli Oil is about $50 dollars US a teaspoon / 5 ml (2006 prices.) Only a drop or two, though, is needed for the flavouring effect.
Named after Marie-Anne de la Trémoille (1642 – 5 December 1722). She became the duchess of Bracciano through her marriage to Flavio Orsini in 1675 in Rome (and later on styled her "Princesse des Ursins".) Among the lands Orsini owned was Nerola, 30 miles (48 km) north of Rome, in Latium. From 1701 onwards, she eventually became one of the most powerful people at the Spanish court. She popularized the use of this orange blossom oil as a perfume. It came to be known as Neroli oil because of her association with Nerola, Italy, which presumably (this part is unclear) was an important producer of the oil.

Bitter Oranges, Orange Flower Water, Orange Oil

Extracts, Flavourings, Screw Pine