Sharbat-e Albaloo

sour cherries simmered with sugar into a thick ruby syrup, then diluted with iced water into the deep-pink, sweet-sharp sour-cherry drink that cools the Persian summer

Origin: Persia (Iran)

From the journey of Cherry.

The Persian sharbat is the ancestor of the sorbet and the syrup alike, a cooling drink of fruit, flower, or herb steeped in sugar, and of all the many sharbats none is more beloved than sharbat-e albaloo, made from the sour cherry of the Caspian homeland. The albaloo cherries are simmered with sugar until they give up their deep red colour and sharp flavour and the liquid thickens to a glossy ruby syrup, which is bottled and kept through the year. A few spoonfuls in a glass of cold water, over ice, make the drink: a deep rose-pink cordial, intensely sweet-sour and refreshing, that is poured for guests and drunk through the heat of the Iranian summer. The same syrup sweetens desserts and is spooned over the milky rice puddings and the saffron ice cream of the Persian table. Simple, ancient, and gloriously coloured, sharbat-e albaloo is the sour cherry in its most refreshing form, and a taste of the Persian genius for the cooling drink.

Ingredients

The Syrup

  • 1 kg sour cherries (albaloo), stoned (fresh or frozen)
  • 800 g sugar
  • 300 ml water
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

To Serve

  • iced water and ice, to serve

Method

  1. Put the stoned cherries in a bowl with half the sugar and leave for an hour or two to draw out the juice.
  2. Tip the cherries and their juice into a pan with the remaining sugar and the water. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
  3. Simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes, skimming any foam, until the cherries are spent and the liquid has reduced to a thick, glossy syrup that coats a spoon. Stir in the lemon juice.
  4. Strain the syrup through a sieve, pressing the cherries to extract every drop (keep the strained cherries to fold into yoghurt or over ice cream). Pour the syrup into sterilised bottles.
  5. To serve, put two or three tablespoons of syrup in a tall glass, top with iced water and ice, and stir. Adjust to taste.

Notes

Frozen or bottled sour cherries make an excellent syrup out of season. The same syrup is the base for a sour-cherry granita or sorbet, drizzles over Persian rice pudding (shir berenj) and saffron ice cream (bastani), and can be loosened with sparkling water for a longer drink. Keep refrigerated and bottled in sterilised jars.

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