Buransh Flower : Refreshing and Intoxicating Sherbet

During the early eighties, I stayed in Pithoragarh for almost three years, far remote Himalayan  district in Kumon touching Nepal and China. Every Year, during Jan. Feb and March, jungles having clusters of Rhododendron arboreum trees (  buransh in the local lingo) suddenly become dark red as if    jungle is on fire.

By the way, Rhododendron is also abundantly found in Bhutan, Nepal as well as Srilanka. It is national flower of Nepal.

This flower has unique property. if you chew it, it is juicy tasting sweet as well as lemony. I remember the daily routine of ladies in Pithoragarh area they  go to forest to collect small wood pieces to fire their chullah and sigri, so normally they used to go in a group each one carrying their lunch but during blooming season of Buransh, they do not carry their lunch just pluck the flowers and chew it to get complete healthy  diet.

There are so many other uses of Buransh flower. Villagers also make it's chutney along with turmeric powder, chillies and garlic, it can be eaten with rice or parathas, it is tasty and  also prevent sickness caused by change of weather during the period.

District Horticulture Department in Pithoragarh used to help house hold ladies to make syrup of Buransh flowers. Big lot of flowers in the Department's premises was available for making this refreshing drink. The climate of the area was cold to pleasant during the year, there was no need to refrigerate the stuff. My wife and her friends had a passion to visit Horticulture Department with empty bottles, sugar and come back with filled bottles in as little as 8 rupee per bottle, what a steal ! Whole year whenever any guest arrived he was served with refreshing Buransh Sherbet. I spoke to experts in Horticulture department, they told me that for heart ailments this sherbet is the best defence. There are many innovative villagers in the area they prepares wine from these flowers.

How to Make Buransh Sherbet

Collect 2 kg of the flowers, remove the internal parts (stigma, pistil). Wash them with fresh water.

Put 3 liters of water in a large pan, add the cleaned flowers, bring to a boil and simmer. added 1 tsp of sodium bicarbonate.

2 kg of flowers is a lot of volume !

Help the flowers to mix with the boiling water.

After about 15 minutes, the flowers gave most of their juice, colour and aroma in the water. It was the good time to sieve the “flower soup”.
When the flowers have cooled down, you can even extract more of their juice by pressing them in your hands.
Out of the 4 liters of very dark red liquid add 2.5 kg of sugar to it and simmer again for 15 minutes.

The flowers after extracting the juice.

Then remove the pot from the fire and added 40 g of citric acid as preservative and for enhancing the taste. See the colour of the squash…

That’s it. To drink it, just mix a dose of the sherbet with double or triple dose of water.

During my stay at Pithoragarh, I thought  that in case government help entrepreneurs to establish units in the area to process Buransh flower and manufacture sherbet, chutney and wine on commercial level, people find additional source of income and help in  creating new jobs. I left the place in the year 1984, wonder in case it has become reality.