Tamarind sherbet is drunk across South Asia, but the Sindhi version sold at street carts around Karachi’s old bazaar areas has a specific character: the sourness is softened with gur (jaggery) rather than white sugar, so the sweetness carries molasses depth; dried ginger and black salt are added so the drink becomes genuinely warming rather than just sweet-sour; and roasted cumin provides a smokiness that turns it from a simple sherbet into something considerably more interesting. It is sold in terracotta cups in summer, chilled with ice blocks, in the same streets where merchants and workers have bought this drink for generations. It arrives at the right moment, which is any moment in a Karachi summer.
Zone: Indus Plains
SOURCE: Street vendor, Karachi Empress Market area, recipe documented 2020
LOCAL NAME: املی کا شربت
INGREDIENTS
- 4 tbsp tamarind paste (or 80g tamarind block soaked and strained)
- 80 g grated jaggery (gur)
- ½ tsp dried ginger powder (sonth)
- ½ tsp black salt (kala namak)
- ½ tsp roasted cumin powder
- ½ tsp red chilli powder (optional)
- 800 ml chilled water
- ice and mint to serve
METHOD
- Combine the tamarind paste and grated jaggery in a small pan over low heat. Stir until the jaggery melts completely into the tamarind, 3–4 minutes. Do not boil.
- Remove from heat. Add the dried ginger, black salt, roasted cumin and red chilli (if using). Stir well. This is the sharbat concentrate.
- Taste: it should be intensely sour-sweet-spiced. Adjust with more jaggery for sweetness or more tamarind for sourness.
- Cool completely, then stir into the chilled water. Taste again and adjust.
- Serve over ice in tall glasses with a mint sprig. The sharbat keeps for up to a week refrigerated — store the concentrate separately and dilute per glass for the best result.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Tamarind paste or concentrate from any supermarket or South Asian grocer. Jaggery from any South Asian grocer. Black salt (kala namak) and dried ginger powder from any South Asian grocer. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: Tamarind paste from South Asian grocery stores or Whole Foods. Jaggery from Patel Brothers. Black salt and dried ginger powder from Indian grocery stores. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Taste the concentrate before diluting — it should be intensely sour, fairly sweet and clearly spiced. Adjust at the concentrate stage rather than after diluting, where changes are harder to calibrate.
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