Best rose syrup in India: how to choose a good rose sharbat
from haldighati Rooted in Mewar

Best rose syrup in India: how to choose a good rose sharbat

What separates a real rose syrup from a bottle of pink sugar: the rose, the colour, the preservative and the sweetener, and which suits falooda or rose milk.

The short answer

A good rose syrup lists rose itself (rose water, rose distillate or rose petal extract) near the top of its ingredients, a sweetener you recognise, and little else. Many of the bright pink bottles on Indian shelves are sugar syrup with added rose flavour, colour and a preservative. That is a legitimate product, but it is a different one from a syrup made with real rose.

1. Where the rose comes from

Read the ingredients for the word that carries the flavour. Rose water or rose distillate means the scent came from roses. Added flavour, or nature-identical or artificial flavouring, means it was added as a flavouring, and FSSAI rules require the label to say so. Both are legal; they simply taste different, and flavouring is why some syrups smell strongly of rose and taste of very little.

2. The colour

Rose water is clear. The deep pink of a typical rose syrup comes from an added food colour, which also has to be declared on the label. A syrup made only from rose water and sugar is clear or very pale, which is why our Clear Rose Sharbat looks like water in the bottle.

3. The preservative

Sodium benzoate is the usual one. Whether a syrup needs it depends on how much sugar it carries and how it is made; if you would rather avoid it, it will be named in the ingredients list.

4. The sweetener

Sugar, mishri, liquid glucose or invert syrup. Liquid glucose is cheaper and makes a thicker, glossier syrup; sugar and mishri give a cleaner sweetness that lets the rose come through.

Which syrup for which drink

• Sharbat: about one part syrup to four parts chilled water or soda.
• Rose milk: stirred into cold milk; amounts are in our rose milk recipe.
• Falooda: the classic version uses a thick pink syrup; a clear one gives the same flavour without colouring the milk. See rose falooda.
• Lassi: see rose lassi, three ways.

Ours, against the checklist

Our Clear Rose Sharbat (350 ml) is rose water and mishri syrup only, with no added colour, essence or preservative. One bottle makes around seven glasses. It is clear rather than pink, and it tastes of rose rather than only of sweet. For a fuller comparison with the mass-market bottles, see how our rose sharbat differs.

Buy from the Haldighati valley

All Haldighati rose products and prices

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