Sharbat, from the Arabic for drink, is the family of sweet cordials that the Middle East has poured for centuries, long before anything came in a can. In Bahrain, rose is a much loved choice: a syrup of sugar, rose water and cardamom, sometimes tinted with a little red color, served with cold water or, best of all, with milk. Sharbat of every kind is poured at weddings, at the Ramadan table and for guests arriving out of the heat, and rose with milk is one of the sweet drinks Bahrainis reach for most.

The syrup takes ten minutes and keeps for two weeks, and a glass of rose milk is as refreshing as it is pretty. The Bahrain Grand Prix runs at night for good reason: even in spring, the desert evenings are warm, and this is what the occasion calls for.

Rose syrup

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 ml) water
• 1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 1 tablespoon dried edible rose petals
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon juice
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) rose water
• 1 drop red or pink food coloring, or 1 teaspoon beet juice

Rose milk

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) per glass rose syrup
• 1 cup (240 ml) per glass very cold whole milk
• a few per glass ice cubes
• 1 teaspoon per glass chopped pistachios
• 1 teaspoon per glass basil seeds (tukhmaria), soaked

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