Haldighati Roses: The Chaitri Gulab and What Is Made From It
from haldighati Rooted in Mewar

Haldighati roses

The short answer

Haldighati is a mountain pass in the Aravalli hills of Mewar, about 40 km north of Udaipur, and the fields around it grow the Chaitri rose: a Damask rose, Rosa damascena, that flowers for a few weeks each spring. Almost everything the valley is known for besides its history, its gulkand, rose sharbat and rose water, starts with that one flower. This is a guide to the rose, its season and how each product is made from it, with links to ours.

Where Haldighati is

Haldighati is a narrow pass, not a town, on the road between Udaipur and Nathdwara, in Rajsamand district near Khamnor. The name comes from haldi, turmeric, after the yellow soil of the pass. It is best known for the battle of 1576 between Maharana Pratap of Mewar and a Mughal army under Man Singh I of Amber, and for Chetak, the horse Pratap rode that day. The rose fields lie on the same yellow earth a few kilometres either side of the pass, around Khamnor and the garden known as Badshahi Bagh. More in what Haldighati is.

The Chaitri rose

The rose is called Chaitri Gulab because it flowers in Chaitra, the first month of the Hindu calendar, which falls across March and April. It is a Damask type, the same species grown for attar in Kannauj and for rose oil in Bulgaria and Turkey. In Mewar its season is short and concentrated: the bushes flower while the nights are still cool and the days are warming, and the useful harvest lasts a matter of weeks. Everything a maker will use for the year comes off the fields in that window. More in the Chaitri rose.

Why it is picked early in the morning

The scent of a rose is carried by an oil that evaporates as the petal warms. That is why picking traditionally starts before sunrise and stops when the heat arrives, and why petals are taken to be made into gulkand or rose water the same morning. A rose picked at noon still smells like a rose, but it carries much less of that oil than one picked at dawn.

Gulkand: petals and mishri, cured slowly

Gulkand is the valley’s best-known rose product. Petals are layered with sugar or mishri in a jar and left to cure, traditionally in the sun, for weeks; the sugar draws the moisture out of the petals and becomes the syrup that preserves them. Good gulkand is a thick mass of soft, dark petals with little loose syrup, and it keeps without a preservative. Our Rose Gulkand is rose petals and mishri only, and our Kesar Elaichi Gulkand adds green cardamom and saffron. More in what gulkand is and which gulkand is best.

Gulab jal: rose water by distillation

Rose water is made by distillation. Steam passes through fresh petals, carries their scent with it and is condensed back into liquid: a very little rose oil, and a much larger quantity of fragrant water, the hydrosol. The traditional Indian still is the deg-bhabhka, a copper pot over a fire joined by a pipe to a receiver cooled in water; modern stills work on the same principle. Real rose water is clear, smells soft and slightly green, and lists only rose distillate on the label. Our Rose Water is steam-distilled from Damask roses of the valley and sold as a food. More in how to check pure gulab jal.

Rose sharbat and paan sharbat

Rose sharbat is a sweet concentrate for cold drinks, diluted about one part to four with chilled water, soda or milk. Ours, Clear Rose Sharbat, is rose water and mishri syrup with no added colour, which is why it is clear rather than the bright pink of commercial rose syrups. Paan Sharbat follows the same idea with paan (betel leaf) extract, for the taste of a meetha paan in a glass. More in how to serve rose sharbat and what paan sharbat is.

Why the colour changes from batch to batch

Rose products made without added colour are never exactly the same twice. Petal colour varies with the season, so one batch of gulkand is a little paler and the next a little deeper. Rose water is clear, and a sharbat made from rose water is clear too. A product that is vividly and identically pink every time is almost always carrying added colour; variation is what an unadulterated product looks like.

How to tell authentic rose products

• Ingredients: short and nameable. Gulkand is petals and sugar or mishri; rose water is rose distillate; rose sharbat is rose water and a sweetener.
• Colour, essence and preservative: all three must be declared on the label if they are used.
• An FSSAI number, the maker’s name and a packing date, on every packaged food.
• A seller who answers questions about where and how it was made.
More in rose products of Mewar and reading an Indian food label.

Visiting, or buying from home

The fields are at their best in Chaitra, roughly March and April, and early in the day. Haldighati is an easy drive from Udaipur and pairs with Nathdwara on the same road; see how to reach Haldighati. If you cannot come in season, the products keep: stored in a cool, dark place, none of ours needs a fridge. We deliver across India for ₹39 (free on orders of ₹1,999 or more), and Udaipur customers can collect their order from us in Bedla.

Our Haldighati rose products

Delivered anywhere in India for ₹39, free on orders of ₹1,999 or more.