Can you make jelly from herbs, flowers, tea or wine?

Yes, but only by a recipe tested for that infusion. Herbs, flowers and tea are not acidic the way fruit is, so a fruit jelly recipe with an herb or flower tea in place of the juice is not safe to can; acid, sugar or both have to be added in tested amounts [1]. The reliable routes are an herb infusion on an apple juice base, such as the classic mint jelly, or a tested pectin-maker recipe that adds lemon juice or vinegar [1][2]. Without a tested recipe, keep the jelly in the refrigerator or freezer. This page covers herb, flower, tea and wine jellies, and what they may be called if you sell them.

Why an infusion is a different product

A fruit jelly is safe in a boiling water canner because the fruit is acidic; its low pH works against Clostridium botulinum, the organism behind botulism [1]. Oregon State's Ask Extension answer on dandelion and grape hyacinth jelly puts the problem in one line: "Herbs, flowers and the tea itself aren't naturally high acid ingredients" [1]. Swapping a flower tea into a fruit jelly recipe removes the acid the recipe depended on, and straining the tea does not change that [1].

UMaine Extension makes a second point that surprises many makers: you cannot swap one flower for another, even in a tested flower jelly. "There is no way of telling at home if a jelly made using other flowers is safe for canning," and "it is not safe to substitute a different flower type" into a tested recipe [3].

Penn State's commercial primer lists herbs and spices among low-acid ingredients, and says jams with significant amounts of them may fall under the federal acidified foods regulation [4]. For a home cook, the takeaway is the same as for peppers: the infusion is the part that needs testing. For a seller, the federal acidified foods rule (21 CFR 114.3) excludes jams and jellies, but FDA has not said in writing whether an herb or pepper jelly falls inside that exclusion; treat one as an acidified food for sale, with a process authority's review, and confirm with FDA at LACF@FDA.HHS.GOV. Pepper jelly, the best-known example of a low-acid jelly, has its own page, pepper jelly.

The four kinds and what each needs

Mint jelly on an apple base

Mint jelly is the classic infusion jelly because it is really an apple jelly flavored with mint. The apple juice brings the acid and, in a no-pectin recipe, the pectin. Colorado State's jelly sheet gives this method [2]:

Mint extract: 1 cup firmly packed mint, with 1 cup boiling water poured over it. Let it stand 1 hour.

Mint jelly: 4 cups apple juice, 1/2 cup mint extract and 3 cups sugar, with 2 drops of green food coloring added just before filling if you want the traditional color. It makes 5 to 6 half-pints.

The apple juice is extracted and the jelly is cooked to the set point like any no-pectin apple jelly; the method, the set temperature and the sheet test are on how to make jelly. Colorado State processes jelly in half-pints or pints for 5 minutes up to 1,000 feet, 10 minutes from 1,001 to 6,000 feet and 15 minutes above that, in sterilized jars [2]. Use that source's chart with that recipe; how long to process jam explains why you should not mix charts.

NCHFP also publishes two mint jellies made with added pectin [6], and Penn State notes that vinegar is sometimes added to mint jelly [5]. If you want a different herb, such as rosemary, thyme, lavender or basil, the tested route is an herb jelly recipe from a pectin maker, used with the herb it names [1]. Swapping one herb for another changes flavor; it is the base recipe and its acid that must stay as written.

Flower jellies

Flower jellies, such as dandelion, rose, violet and lilac, are made from a tea of the petals, set with pectin and given acid with bottled lemon juice. UMaine explains that flower petals are low in acid, so the lemon juice is required [3]. Use only a tested recipe for the specific flower you have.

UMaine prints this dandelion jelly, a Pomona's Pectin recipe [3]:

Key points from the recipe: separate the yellow petals from the green bases, because "any green part" makes the jelly bitter; steep the petals 20 to 30 minutes and "do not over-steep"; boil the jelly 1 to 2 minutes after the pectin goes in; fill 8 ounce jars with 1/4 inch headspace; and process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner, adjusting for altitude [3]. Store sealed jars in a cool, dark, dry place for up to a year, and once opened, refrigerate and use within 2 weeks [3]. Follow the full recipe at the source for the order of steps.

For rose petal jelly, UMaine notes that the Pomona's recipe calls for 3 cups of fresh petals or 1 cup of dried [3]; take the rest of the quantities from Pomona's recipe itself.

Choosing flowers safely

The flower has to be both edible and the one the recipe names.

• Identify it with certainty. If you are not sure what a plant is, do not use it. The Oregon State question that prompted its answer involved grape hyacinth alongside dandelion [1]; edibility varies plant by plant, so check each one against a reliable reference before it goes in a pot.
• Use the flower the recipe names, not a substitute [3].
• Pick from plants grown for food, away from roadsides and from lawns or beds treated with products not labeled for food crops. Florist and garden-center flowers are usually grown for looks rather than for eating, so do not assume they are food-safe.
• Use petals only where the recipe says, and keep green parts out where it tells you to [3].

Tea jelly

Tea jelly is made the same way as a flower jelly: a brewed tea set with pectin. Oregon State is explicit that the tea itself is not acidic enough to treat like fruit juice [1]. No tested tea jelly recipe turned up in the sources reviewed for this page. Without one, make tea jelly as a refrigerator or freezer jelly, not a canned one. The refrigerator route is covered on refrigerator jam.

Wine jelly

Wine jelly is a pectin jelly made with wine in place of fruit juice. No extension-tested wine jelly turned up in the sources reviewed for this page, so none is given here. If you have a wine jelly recipe from a pectin manufacturer or an extension service, follow it exactly, including the wine quantity and any added acid. If your recipe comes from elsewhere, treat the jelly as untested and keep it refrigerated or frozen.

If you sell an herb, flower or wine jelly

Three rules shape what you can call these jellies and whether you can sell them.

1. Mint-flavored apple jelly fits the jelly standard. The federal standard for fruit jelly allows mint flavoring with artificial green coloring when the juice is apple, crabapple, pineapple or a combination, and cinnamon flavoring (not artificial) with artificial red coloring for apple or crabapple [7]. A mint jelly made on apple juice to the standard's proportions can be sold as jelly. Those proportions are at least 45 parts fruit juice to 55 parts sugar by weight, with the juice weight worked out from its soluble solids and a factor the standard gives for each fruit [7]; the arithmetic is on how much fruit the law requires.
2. Other infusion jellies are nonstandardized jellies. FDA's policy for jellies made from things other than fruit says they should reach 65 percent soluble solids and be named "jelly" with the flavor source before or after it, such as "Lavender Jelly" or "Jelly, Rose," with all ingredients listed by common name in order of weight [8].
3. Your state may exclude them. Because herbs, flowers and other low-acid ingredients can bring a jelly under the acidified foods rules [4], cottage food laws do not all treat herb, vegetable and alcohol-containing jellies the way they treat fruit jelly. Check preserves cottage food laws often exclude and your state's page before you make a batch for market.

Naming in general is on what you can call your jam.

Before you change an infusion recipe

Most of the risk in this kind of jelly comes from changing a recipe: a different flower, less lemon, a stronger tea, more herb. What you can change in a tested recipe separates the changes that only affect flavor from the ones that affect safety.

References

1. Oregon State University Extension Service, Hibbard-Swanson, *Is jelly made from dandelion or grape hyacinth tea considered safe?* (Ask Extension), June 27, 2025. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/ask-extension/featured/jelly-made-dandelion-or-grape-hyacinth-tea-considered-safe
2. Colorado State University Extension, Kendall and Lees-Cooley, *Making Jellies*, Fact Sheet 9.303, revised October 2011 (copy hosted by UC ANR), mint extract, mint jelly and processing table. https://oc4h.ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2020-09/335851.pdf
3. University of Maine Cooperative Extension, McCarty, *How to Make Flower Petal Jelly Safely*, undated (URL dated February 12, 2026). https://extension.umaine.edu/food-health/2026/02/12/flower-petal-jelly/
4. Penn State Extension, LaBorde, *Food for Profit: Commercial Production of Jams, Jellies, and Fruit Butters*, updated May 24, 2024. https://extension.psu.edu/food-for-profit-commercial-production-of-jams-jellies-and-fruit-butters
5. Penn State Extension, Zepp, *Acidity Level of Fruit in Jam and Jelly Preparation* (video), undated, accessed October 2026. https://extension.psu.edu/acidity-level-of-fruit-in-jam-and-jelly-preparation
6. National Center for Home Food Preservation, *Jams and Jellies* recipe index (Mint Jelly with pectin; Mint Jelly II with pectin), accessed October 2026. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly
7. 21 CFR 150.140, Fruit jelly (Cornell LII, current eCFR text). https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/150.140
8. FDA, *CPG Sec. 550.475 Jellies, Nonstandardized*, revised May 2005, updated November 29, 2005. https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/cpg-sec-550475-jellies-nonstandardized