Falooda is an amazing beverage flavored with rose syrup & other ingredients like vermicelli, basil seeds & milk. The taste is outrageous and very refreshing. The rose syrup is the real charm of this layered falooda.


To make it more tasteful, you can serve it with dry fruits & as well as Vanilla ice cream. Falooda is very popular in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Surat where you will find it on the streets to refresh yourself.

In my childhood, I used to go to my uncle’s house for summer vacation. Every evening we both would go for a walk and he would treat me to this amazing drink from the Sagar Ice cream shop.

I love the combination of ingredients that are used to make three layers. Rose syrup gives you instant refreshment & milk is good for an empty stomach. Basil seeds or soja seeds are very healthy as it contains coldness. It makes your body cool.

Make this Rose Falooda for Ramadan iftar and give a treat to your loved one. Due to the vermicelli and soaked basil seeds, it has been a charm for kids.

Variants For Falooda

This dish is popular and extremely loved in multiple places over the world. Hence, there are so many variations to this depending on the location. The only common ingredients will be the basil seeds, vermicelli

Persian Version

The original version of this drink dates back to Persia (Iran) where they had a similar dish named Faloodeh or Paloodeh. Biryani wasn’t the only thing they brought with them to India during the Medieval period then. The falooda we Indians drink today is inspired by their dish developed during Mughal Era. The rulers specifically from the Hyderabad Deccan and Carnatic regions adopted this drink.

Myanmar Version

Over there, this drink consists of basil seeds, grass jelly, egg pudding, vanilla ice cream, sweetened milk, and rose syrup. An even more elaborate version than this includes sago, rice noodles, fruit jelly, and chopped fruit. This looks very similar to our version.

Bangladeshi Version

In this version, pandan which is a plant having fragrant leaves, its extract is used. Pistachios, sago pearls, creamed coconut, mango, milk, vermicelli, and may also even include strong black tea.

Indonesian Version

This version is known as Cendol or Es Cendol. This version is also found in Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Myanmar. It’s more like an iced sweet dish containing droplets of green rice flour jelly, coconut milk, and palm sugar syrup. Sometimes additional toppings might be added, including diced jackfruit, sweetened red azuki beans, or durian.

Thai Version

This version includes lemon basil seeds, shredded jelly, tapioca pearls, and Job’s tears (a type of plant) mixed with sugar, water, and rose water. The name of this drink over there is Nam Maenglak.

Malaysia & Singapore Version

This drink is simply known as a rose syrup drink in literal. Or other names for it are Bandung, sirap bandung, air bandung, iced bandung. It consists of evaporated milk or condensed milk flavoured with rose syrup (rose cordial), giving it a pink colour. It looks similar to Rooh Afza with milk.

Mauritius Version

This version looks very much like simple milk with basil seeds at first glance. The ingredients in this version are milk, agar-agar, condensed milk, ice cubes, and vanilla ice cream. The Mauritians call this drink Alouda.

Various Forms of Falooda

This drink is customized into various forms and different flavours. Hence, we are able to see different forms of this drink in India itself.

Mango Falooda

This just mainly experiments with the flavour and the remaining drink remains the same. We are to add mango flavours to the drink along with the rose syrup. You can do that by adding mango puree and/or mango pieces. You can even show some creativity by using mango juliennes or shaved mango bits instead of rice vermicelli. Use a peeling knife for this. The mango “Badam” will be the best for trying this.

Similarly, add some agar-agar and water with the rose syrup and cook them. This will get you jelly to add to the falooda. Top it up with lots of dry fruits and vanilla ice cream if you want. You will get to have the liberty to make it your way.

Kulfi Falooda

We can consider this a fusion of two popular Indian desserts in one. In this version, instead of using milk, we will replace it with Kulfi. This will be served as an iced dish on a plate/bowl. The Kulfi will be topped with rice vermicelli/Sev or Faloodeh, basil seeds, rice (vermicelli) noodles, rose syrup, and dry fruits. You can even add malai (milk fat) to it as well.

Rabdi Falooda

As the name suggests, this version contains rabdi. The milk in the drink is replaced by the rabdi. You need to cook the full-fat milk till it burns to 3/4 of the volume. Once the milk thickens then add sugar and cardamom powder. Mix them and cook more till the mixture thickens more. With one liter of milk, you will get 250 gms of rabri after the cooking. Once done assemble every ingredient in a glass and serve.

This version is extremely popular in the Chandni Chowk area of Old Delhi.

Try Falooda at your home this summer & enjoy the taste with your loved ones.

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