Many moons ago, when I happened to bring RoohAfza home from a market sojourn, a visiting GrandUncle who claimed to be friends with some hakim of Hamdard Dawakhana exclaimed how happy he was to see youngsters in the age of Coke and Pepsi still buy RoohAfza. GrandUncleji went on to tell me the history behind Roohafzah, and if you thought you were going to escape it, you are wrong:-
History
It was in circa 1907, Sharbat RoohAfza as we know it today, was first formulated personally by Hakim Abdul Majid, the founder of Hamdard Dawakhana.
(Wasn’t that history short? Say thank you. What I had to hear was much longer)
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RoohAfza
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Besides the cooling, refreshing and rejuvenating properties, RoohAfza is noteworthy for its all natural list of ingredients.
GrandUncleji told me that it contained individual pure syrups of fruits(orange, pineapple, carrot and watermelon) flowers (rose, keora, orange flowers and lime flowers) And some medicinal herbs like khurfa seeds, kasni, munaqqa, chharrhila, nilofar, gaozaban, hara dhania etc. and even some vegetable extracts(palak, pudina, hara ghia) roots (khus) plus sandalwood
I must have appeared as clueless as Tusshaar Kapoor, for after glancing at me GrandUncleji went about giving detailed elaborations of each of these constituents, which I shan’t delve into here(say thank you again) but it will suffice to say that:-
RoohAfza is an exceptionally appropriate summer drink. Besides cooling, refreshing, with a Great Taste, it is also therapeutic and nutritional, maintains and adjusts the body’s water and electrolyte balance, stimulates the function of liver and kidney, checks vomiting, diarrhea, and indigestion.
Besides a glass in the sweltering summer also helps keep one active and energetic.
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RoohAfza over other drinks
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It is indeed sad to note that the product has shown a decline in its sales figures over the years. The reasons could be manifold. Unfortunately, RoohAfza is not favoured by many due to:
Colour Not everyone likes a red coloured drink. I have no hassles, however.
Sweetness Some dislike RoohAfza because of its sweetness. As it is mostly made of rose petals and fruit juices one cannot expect it to have a tangy flavour, but a few drops of lime juice in the glass of RoohAfza leads to the perfect balance. Also the amount to syrup used can well be adjusted to modulate the level of sweetness.
Not modern The above non-issues apart, the drink is considered ‘not modern’ and possesses a ‘fuddy duddy’ household image that no ‘trendy’ youngster would touch with a barge pole.
It is indeed a pity that RoohAfza seems to have lost out to brands like Tang/ Rasna (yuck!) for in-home consumption and to those Pepsis/Cokes (tsk tsk!) and Frooti (eeyaarghh!!!) for outdoor consumption.
These have stolen a march over RoohAfza over planks of coolness and youth.(The world gets more pretentious every year)
Indoor consumption only I guess what also works against RoohAfza is that it cannot be consumed outdoors. It hasn’t any ready to drink aspect and thus bottled, canned, tetrapacked aerated drinks score.
One just can’t have a glass of RoohAfza on an impulse, in the sweltering heat whilst outdoors, a time when you require it the most.
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When you cant beat them, join them
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An aggressive marketing strategy was chalked out for RoohAfza last year. The AV ad-campaign had a group of young boys and girls partying on a beach, an attempt to reposition RoohAfza as ‘a modern cool drink with natural properties’ for the youth.
This shift is indeed quite radical, but they couldn’t avoid it for long as almost all cold drinks are targeting youth with new mantras of being cool – ‘Yehi hai right choice’, ‘Thanda matlab’, ‘Do the Dew’.(Let me laugh, but more laughable is the fact that people actually even follow the ads’ instructions)
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RoohAfza has always been one of its kind
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There has been no me-too competition. Unless you count the once existing clone – Dabur’s Sharbat-e-Azam. Similar bottle, colour, taste, ingredients but consumers rather went for the original. (When Amitabh is around would you want to see Mukesh Khanna?) To add to the fanfare, Sharbat-e-Azam also boasted of an exquisitely crafted television ad that went thus:-
Beautiful courtesan, Anarkali faints in Emperor Akbar’s court after a particularly intense mujra performance. The Emperor claps and calls for Sharbat-e-Azam to be presented. The fainted courtesan is revived with the drink and within seconds she is mujrofying with refurbished vitality. Did I mention the courtesan was Meenakshi Sheshadari?
RoohAfza sales did not suffer any dent because of Sharbat-e-Azam. Of course, like Sharbat-e-Azam disappeared from the shelves (not to consumers’ residences, but back to the company warehouse) its ads also vanished before you could actually get hold of your senses to register disgust.
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Its my favourite
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Why I call it healthy is because RoohAfza has been scientifically documented to be so, I could suggest a link or two to those interested, do M2M.
RoohAfza also is good in cold milk, soda, as ice cream topping, as an additive in puddings, soufflés, and some select cocktails too. A 700ml bottle of the syrup is available for Rs. 67/-
It is the preferred drink for health conscious folks like me who believe in natural goodness. I do not want to drink colas or those synthetic powders/squashes with alleged fruit content etc. No, nyet, non, nahi, illa, venda.