Most lavender flower buds are edible. English lavender cultivars such as Purple Bouquet, Buena Vista, Folgate, Rosea, Melissa, Royal Velvet, Miss Katherine, and Avice Hill tend to be sweeter and are used in beverages, cooking, and baking. Hybrid lavender cultivars such as Grosso, Phenomenal, and Provence have more of a camphor flavor and are typically used in soaps, lotions, and savory dishes. Ultimately, you should taste different cultivars and determine what cultivar you like the best. The key to cooking with lavender is to experiment, starting out with a small amount of buds, and add more to taste. Read your lavender recipe carefully, and remember to use 1/3rd the quantity of dried to fresh buds. You should only buy your culinary lavender buds from reputable lavender growers and resellers.

How do you choose the “perfect” lavender to add to your food or drink to enhance the flavor providing that distinctive and delicious floral note? The kind of lavender you choose depends on your individual tastes. We have created the following guide to help you choose that “perfect” lavender from our eight culinary lavenders. Just click on this linked Lavender Culinary Cultivars PDF document.

Download our featured lavender recipes, and check out the Lavender Northwest website for additional beverage, dessert, and savory recipes. You can also search Google for other culinary “lavender recipes”. Check out the Art of Cooking with Lavender, which is a full-color cookbook with 80 recipes, and over 70 lavender and recipe photos.

Let us know your favorite culinary cultivars and recipes.