Drink · indian cuisine

Cooling Rose Sharbat

Name: Cooling Rose Sharbat
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 4 tbsp rose syrup (Rooh Afza); 4 cups cold water or milk; 2 tbsp sabja seeds (sweet basil seeds), soaked in water 15 min; 4 tbsp condensed milk (if using water base); Ice cubes; Dried rose petals for garnish

Syrup, cold water, lemon, ice. Too much syrup and it tastes like perfume.

By Hasnain Khan · Tested in a home kitchen · Updated 2026-08-16

⏱ 10 min 👤 4 glasses 🔥 Easy ⭐ 4.6 / 5

Recipe card

Prep10 min

Cook10 min

Total10 min

Yield4 servings

Rating4.6 / 5

Calories140

CuisineIndian

CourseDrink

Jump to ingredients Jump to method Nutrition

Why this recipe works

Rose sharbat is nostalgia in a glass — bright pink, lightly floral, dotted with jelly-like sabja seeds. Soak the seeds until they bloom. Stir syrup into cold water or milk depending on how rich you want the afternoon to feel.

It is not complicated, and that is its charm.

Expert kitchen tips

Soak sabja fully before serving — unsoaked seeds are hard.
Milk version with condensed milk is creamier and dessert-like.
Serve over plenty of ice.

Ingredients

4 tbsp rose syrup (Rooh Afza)
4 cups cold water or milk
2 tbsp sabja seeds (sweet basil seeds), soaked in water 15 min
4 tbsp condensed milk (if using water base)
Ice cubes
Dried rose petals for garnish

Step-by-step method

Soak sabja seeds in ½ cup water for 15 minutes. They will swell up to translucent gel-coated seeds.
In each glass, add 1 tbsp rose syrup.
Add cold water or milk. For milk version, add condensed milk instead of plain water.
Stir well to dissolve the rose syrup.
Add a tablespoon of soaked sabja seeds. Add ice cubes.
Garnish with dried rose petals and serve immediately.

💡 My tip from testing this at home: sabja seeds are not chia seeds — though they look similar when soaked. Sabja are smaller and have a different flavour. They're cooling according to Ayurveda.

Estimated nutrition

About 140 calories per serving (based on 4 servings). Values are estimates for home cooks and vary by brands, oil used, and portion size — not lab-analysed.

Syrup first, then ice

I keep a bottle of rose syrup in the fridge and build each glass to taste — syrup, cold water or soda, ice, maybe basil seeds if I soaked them that morning. It is our heatwave drink when tea feels too heavy.

Concentrated syrup lasts weeks sealed and cold. Diluted sharbat is best finished the same day. Leftover syrup also sweetens milk, yogurt, or a simple fruit salad without making another drink.

This recipe is original CookMe editorial content for home cooks. Nutrition varies by brands and portions. If you have allergies, check every label. CookMe may display ads via partners such as Mediavine; see our Privacy Policy and Advertising Disclosure.