Chunnilal’s Sharbat – BELA

Chunnilal’s Sharbat Bela Syrup is one of the tastiest and yummy syrup you will ever drink. When Chunnilal Tanwar used to dole out sharbat(cordials) made with a variety of flowers and spices. The flavours range from bela(jasmine) and gulab(rose) to saunf(fennel) and laung(clove) as well as half a dozen others. He source the ingredients from different places. Example he get the bela from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, kewda(pandanus) from Ganjam in Odisha, saunf from Gujarat. “Summer is the busy season, but even on a cool January afternoon. Customers keep stopping by for a kulhad or glass of their favourite sharbat, or to buy a bottle of concentrate. “Pure rose extract is not red but people expect it to be, so we have to add artificial colouring to the gulab sharbat”, says Tanwar ruefully.  Apart from gulab and the malachite green khus (vetiver), none of the other cordials contains artificial colours—just pure extract and sugar syrup. The elaichi (cardamom) is delightfully nuanced while the laung is appropriately piquant. Our favourite turns out to be the saunf with its sweet anise flavours. Kesar(saffron) and the Badam-kesar(almond-saffron) as well, the syrups are bright amber and are mixed with milk(instead of water) to make a sweet, pale-yellow drink—a dessert-like end to the sharbat tasting.