In my childhood, my family would refer to Rooh Afza as ‘that horrible rose drink’ and was served to those hapless guests we weren’t too happy to see. It always confounded me that the blasted drink had a cult following: as sherbet, in milk, falooda and so on. Later in life, when I taught myself to be a bit more open-minded about my culinary experiences, I learned to appreciate Rooh Afza with lime squeezed into a chilled glass of Rooh Afza. Recently, this rose-drink-concentrate was trending on Twitter.
The summer drink ubiquitous in millions of Indian homes has been in short supply for a while now. Now with the start of the holy month of Ramzan, its short supply is being felt acutely.
For many Indian Muslims, iftaar (the breaking of the daily fast in the evening) is accompanied by sipping on a cooling drink of Roohafza. The sales of the drink peak during Ramzan.
The drink has a formidable fan following among Indians of all religious denominations. People drink it just with water, or with lemon, pinch of black salt and pepper, added mint, as an ice cream topping, in falooda and other desserts.
A lot of people really, really dislike RoohAfza. I was one for the longest time.
How can anyone hate it, feel some. Me, I'm neutral –I’ll drink it if very thirsty, but won’t miss it if I never see another glass of Rooh Afza in my life.
According to news reports, a family rift was behind the short supply of the rose syrup. The product manufacturer Hamdard is a family owned concern and there have been rumours of disagreements within the family. However, a company representative has said that the reason for short supply pertains to difficulties sourcing certain herbal ingredients.
The drink Rooh Afza was first launched about a hundred years ago, and during the partition it travelled to Pakistan along with half of the family that owned the brand. Since the drink is also manufactured across the border, those on the other side offered to send across some trucks via the Wagah Border.
There are plenty of other rose flavoured drinks in the market: Haldiram, Meghdoot, Rasna, Mapro and others.
Where there is a problem there is a conspiracy theory. Remember how people were convinced the Maggi toxic ingredient scare was a ploy to get rid of the competition for Patanjali noodles? People seem to have a similar conspiracy theory here as well.
Turns out, it was all just a tempest in a teacup. Rooh Afza is very much available. I have not personally checked in stores, but Amazon, Big Basket, Grofers, Flipkart, Reliance Mart all promise to deliver the sweet red syrup to your doorstep.
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
