The blossoms used for orange flower water and other preparations are those of the bitter or Seville orange, best known to cooks in the British Isles for making marmalade. Neroli, the fragrant oil of the bitter orange, is used in perfumery and orange flower water is the scented by-product of the distilling process used to obtain the more costly oil.
During the eighteenth century Malta was the main supplier of oranges and orange flower water to France, and the crowned heads of Europe were accustomed to receiving both as gifts from the Knights of St John. Neroli was also produced, as well as jasmine pommade and a pommade ร la gazia, an acacia flower, or mimosa, oil. A fascinating correspondence of the period between a Parisian grocer and his son, a young cleric attached to the Knights, shows an impatient father urging that the orange trees be watered just once a fortnight, that his son select only the very best oranges and that he pack them carefully in wood chips or wrapped in cotton. He even gives detailed instructions for making the crates in which the oranges were to be shipped. Sometimes he wants the neroli decanted from the orange flower water and sent separately, sometimes he says he will do this job himself. Very rarely is he satisfied with what his son sends. Orange flower water is still used today in traditional Maltese desserts, such as mqaret, kwarezimal and figolli, date-filled pastries, Lenten almond cakes and special biscuits eaten at Easter.
