Navratri Drinks & Sherbets

Many people keep part of the Navratri fast on phalahar, fruit and milk only, so drinks carry more of the day than usual. This corner of our Navratri range covers the cold glasses people reach for. Coconut water, nariyal pani, is the simplest of them, drunk chilled straight from the carton or can.

Rose syrup turns a glass of cold milk pink and fragrant, and nannari syrup, made from the root of Indian sarsaparilla, is the Tamil summer favourite, stirred with lemon juice and water for nannari sarbath. Both are in rose syrup and sherbet. Check the label for colourings or additives if your fast is strict about packaged food.

Sherbet, or sharbat, is a concentrated syrup made to be diluted, and the deep red rose sherbets blended with fruit and herb extracts have been a festival and summer drink in South Asian homes for generations. Stir a little into iced water with a squeeze of lemon, into cold milk for a pink milk sherbet, or over crushed ice with soaked basil seeds. For thandai and lassi, the almonds and melon seeds are in Navratri dry fruits and nuts, and the milk powder and mango pulp for mango lassi and aamras are in Navratri sweet making and prasad.

Once a bottle of syrup is open, wipe the neck before closing it so the cap does not stick, and follow the storage line on the label, since some sherbets ask to be kept in the fridge. Chill coconut water before opening, keep an opened carton covered in the fridge and finish it within the time given on the pack.