Introduction : A bottle of rose syrup is the most underused ingredient in the average Indian kitchen. Most households open it for one reason, rose milk, and then return it to the shelf for another fortnight. That is a waste of a genuinely versatile ingredient. The uses of rose syrup stretch well beyond the classic […]

India is probably the only country in the world that has a distinct summer drink for almost every state. Before carbonated soft drinks colonised the supermarket aisle in the late 20th century, every Indian region had already solved the heat with its own sarbath drink, sherbet, or cooler, each rooted in local botany, local climate, […]

Walk the beverage aisle of any Indian supermarket, and you will find at least three products that look like the same thing. Rose syrup. Rose milk syrup. Rose milk essence. The bottles look similar, the colours look similar, and the prices look similar. The products, however, are not. Understanding what separates them is the difference […]

Two glasses sit on every Indian summer table. Both are pink. Both are cold. Both are delicious. But one is creamy, cloud-soft and dessert-like while the other is clear, tangy and instantly thirst-quenching. The question every shopper asks before heading to the fridge in May is simple: rose milk or rose sharbat? The answer depends […]