Rare Omani rose harvest experience launches at new luxury hotel
For a brief few weeks in spring, these mountains are awash with pink flowers. Now, you can take part in a tradition hundreds of years old.
There is an art to picking roses. The trick, explains our guide as he deftly weaves his way through the pink and green bushes that, seemingly against all odds, grow on the side of Oman’s Jabal Akhdar mountain range, is to gently twist at the base and then – snap. Stopping beside one that’s particularly heavy with flowers, he reaches out to demonstrate: it’s clean, efficient and doesn’t damage the bush or the bud. This, he says, is the technique used by the local families who have lived and worked here for generations.
These particular roses – known as Ward al Jabal, which translates to “mountain rose” – are a variety of damask said to have been cultivated for 500 years. Grown at altitudes above 2000m, they bloom briefly in early spring for just four to six weeks. Pale pink and small-headed, they are prized for their exceptionally high oil content and an intense scent. This brightness is a curious byproduct of their extreme growing conditions, as we’re told while walking through the gardens, picking the pinkest blooms and inhaling their crisp aroma.
Apologies to Shakespeare, but he was wrong. A rose by any other name doesn’t smell the same. In the limestone-rich terrain of Jabal Akhdar, roses smell markedly different from their candy-like cousins that grow closer to sea level. There’s citrus, and a mineral sharpness that’s almost fizzy on the nose. This unique terroir makes their oil prized in the art of perfumery.
While most of the roses that tumble into our pink aprons will be processed into rosewater and sold locally, a portion is reserved for Amouage, Oman’s most prestigious perfume house, to be transformed into the rare absolutes used in its fragrances.
In partnership with the Mandarin Oriental, Muscat, the Omani perfume brand now offers guests a rare, immersive glimpse into its perfumery process, from rose harvesting to distillation and manufacture. Timed precisely to the brief bloom in late March to early April, the Rose Harvest Experience is exclusive to the hotel and arranged through longstanding relationships with the families who tend the terraces. It’s a deeply personal encounter with tradition.
The experience truly begins in the grandeur of the hotel. Opened in June 2024, the property sits along the beach of the Gulf of Oman, close to the capital’s diplomatic and cultural districts in Shatti Al-Qurum. Designed by French architect Xavier Cartron, with interiors that reference Omani craftsmanship, it’s deliciously decadent in the most tasteful way, featuring hand-carved Mashrabiya panels, brushed-brass lanterns, and pale Desert Rose marble. There are 150 guestrooms and suites, most with sea or mountain views. Signature suites even have a dedicated Amouage amenity collection, Anchorage, featuring a custom scent created for the hotel by perfumer Cecile Zarokian from a blend of pink pepper, cardamom, frankincense and rose. Guests of the harvest outing receive a bottle of the best-selling Guidance fragrance.
If you’ve spent time on a farm, you’ll know how early the day begins during harvest season. Rose picking is no different. Our wake-up call for transfers up the mountain comes at 6am, which gives us time to enjoy a light breakfast at The Club Lounge, overlooking the pristine sands of Shatti Al-Qurum beach. It’s a good idea to keep the meal light, too. The drive to Jabal Akhdar takes just over two hours but is filled with hairpin turns, apparently steepening with every bend. Guests prone to car sickness are best to take a minimalist approach to dining beforehand.
Those with stronger stomachs can stop at one of the roadside cafes along the way and indulge in some of the region’s delicacies, such as the thick cardamom and saffron-flavoured tea called karak and fresh, warm flatbread drizzled with date syrup. It’s a delicious fix for lingering jetlag before doing some work in the field.
Along the way, my driver Mohamed happily divulges local insights. Apparently, the country learned from watching neighbouring Dubai’s rapid development and opted to ban high-rises in the heart of the city. No building of more than 11 storeys is allowed, he says. Locals are also encouraged to use paints only in shades of cream or white. This, he explains, means the city never overwhelms the austere beauty of the landscape. It also helps to keep homes cool in the heat. There’s a wisdom in the relationship between design and nature that plenty of other major cities could learn from.
From the hotel, the looming mountains look like an unbroken wall of slate grey. It is impossible to imagine them supporting the kind of flora we’re soon to harvest. But as the road climbs higher, past the 1500m mark, the colours become more gentle. The translated meaning of Jabal Akhdar, the Green Mountain, starts to make sense. Scattered across the hillsides are wild olive and juniper trees. Further up, a garden owned by the royal family is being used to explore the farming potential of fruits and nuts, including dates and pomegranates. And then we see the pink jewel in the crown – the rose terraces.
What follows is a rare chance to trace the flower’s journey from bush to bottle. Once our aprons are full, we’re led along the edges of the terraces to Al-Aqar village, where many of the farming families live. Normally, guests are driven but we’ve chosen to walk. It’s a 20-minute stroll over uneven ground, softened by sweeping views of the valley below. Along the way, we pass the ancient irrigation channels that still nourish the ground. Known as aflaj, they’ve been in use for centuries, are gravity-fed, and precisely timed to share water entitlements between neighbours.
Our first stop is an old-fashioned distillery that demonstrates the traditional method for making rosewater. The process is slow and simple; petals are simmered in a vessel called an al-burmah, with vapour collected in a copper dome and condensed into a thick, amber-coloured liquid. The scent is nothing like the bottled stuff found in supermarket aisles. It’s smoky, almost leathery, with a hint of barbecue, and utterly mouth-watering.
After this, it’s on to the modern facility that processes all the region’s roses to produce beauty-grade oil and rosewater. It looks like a whisky distillery and follows much the same process. Here, the roses yield a more refined note, soft, luminous and slightly green, that provides many of Amouage’s fragrances with their signature brightness. The journey culminates with a visit to the Amouage Manufacture and Visitors Centre in Muscat; part laboratory, part museum, part boutique, where visitors can try and buy the entire Amouage range. Exit via the gift store, indeed.
To close the loop, there’s one final flourish to be had back at the Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop. A seasonal dessert pays tribute to the rose. It’s a mousse of white chocolate, pistachio and raspberry shaped like a bloom, served alongside a miniature bottle of Guidance. It’s not essential to the experience, but it does tie it all together. Flower, fragrance, flavour.
In the know
Timing for the rose harvest experience varies year to year between late March and mid-April. Bookings for the experience are available for a minimum two people and a maximum of 10. Rooms at the Mandarin Oriental, Muscat, including the Rose Harvest Experience, from $600 rial ($2380) a night, with daily buffet breakfast, return transfers to Jabal Akhdar, picnic basket with beverages and a bottle of Amouage Guidance perfume (100ml). Dates are subject to change based on bloom timings and weather conditions.
Benjamen Judd was a guest of Amouage.
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