Drinks made for the heat
Long before fridges and fizzy drinks, Pakistani summers were survived on lassi, sharbat and lemon water. They’re still the drinks of choice at roadside stalls and family tables, partly from habit and partly because they work: yogurt cools, salt and sugar replace what heat takes out of you, and souring ingredients like lemon, tamarind and plums are refreshing in a way plain sweet drinks aren’t.
Lassi, sweet or salty
Punjab runs on lassi. Sweet lassi is thick, frothy and often topped with a spoon of ; namkeen lassi is thinner, salty and flavoured with roasted cumin and mint, and is usually drunk with a heavy lunch. Both need the same two things: yogurt that’s ice-cold and slightly sour, and plenty of churning. A traditional does it by hand; a blender does it in thirty seconds.
Sharbat and lemon water
Shikanjvi is Pakistan’s lemonade, sharpened with a pinch of and fresh mint. Rooh Afza, the red rose-flavoured syrup, is stirred into water, milk or sometimes lemonade, and appears on almost every iftar table. Imli aloo bukhara sharbat, made from tamarind and dried plums, is sweet-sour and especially good after a spicy meal.
The special ones
Falooda is half drink, half dessert: rose syrup, soaked seeds, thin noodles, milk and a scoop of kulfi in a tall glass. Kanji is a winter drink made by fermenting black carrots with mustard seeds for a few days in the sun. It’s tangy, deep purple and naturally fizzy.