Stars

Stars is a syrup label, and the bottle we carry is a rose and sherbet syrup in the style loved across South India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. It is a sweet concentrate flavoured with rose, made to be diluted and coloured a vivid pink that announces exactly what is in the glass.

The Stars syrup sits in our rose syrup and sherbet collection, part of the wider cordials and syrups shelf. Rose syrups vary in sweetness and depth of flavour, and this one is lighter and brighter than the darker herbal style of sharbat, which makes it the usual choice for milk drinks.

Rose milk is the classic use, sold at street stalls across Chennai and served at Sri Lankan celebrations: stir a couple of spoonfuls into chilled milk, add soaked basil seeds if you like, and serve very cold. Diluted with iced water and lime it becomes a simple rose sherbet, and it gives falooda its pink layers with vermicelli, jelly and ice cream. Bakers use it to flavour and colour buttercream, rose cupcakes and the syrup for rose gulab jamun, and it is drizzled over shaved ice, kulfi and vanilla ice cream.

Shake the bottle before use, keep the cap closed, and store it in a cool cupboard or the fridge once opened. For the darker, herb-scented style of rose sharbat, compare the Hamdard bottle, and for floral waters used in cooking see our rose and kewra water collection.