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An Azerbaijani sherbet (şərbət) is a refreshing, cooling drink made from fruit, sugar and water.
The word sherbet comes from the Persian sharbat, itself an adaptation of the Arabic for drink, sharab. Sherbet entered the English language as sorbet, which is now more of an iced dessert or palate cleanser than a drink. British readers of a certain age will remember the sherbet fountain, a fizzy powder sold in a cardboard tube with a piece of liquorice to suck it through. This is a distant relative of Azerbaijani sherbet, as the powder was originally intended to be mixed with water to create a drink. Azerbaijan has a rich variety of sherbets, one of the most traditional of which is prepared from pomegranate juice, water and sugar.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves: 4 to 5
Ingredients
- 100 g/4 oz piece of sugar loaf or 100 g/4 oz granulated sugar
- 568 ml/1 pint water
- 4 pomegranates
- ice cubes
Preparation
- Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it.
- Squeeze the juice out of 4 pomegranates into a separate jug.
- Add the juice to the sugar and water and leave to cool.
- Serve chilled or with ice cubes according to taste.
