Srinagar’s ‘Arq-i-Gulab Waan’, the last surviving rose water distillery in Kashmir, is located near Khanqah-e-Moula in Downtown. The 102-year-old shop is owned by the 66-year-old Abdul Aziz Kozgar.

A man of few words, Kozgar’s rose water distillation process is a closely guarded family secret of nearly 500 years. Kozgar’s shop was opened around 1820 by his grandfather Habibullah Kozgar after he imported jars, decanters and other things from France and the UK to open a business in Srinagar. His family arrived in the Kashmir Valley from Turkey around 500 years ago.

The Kozgars were experts in Unani medicine and Aziz Kozgar remembers stacked piles of rose petals in the family’s courtyard, for use in syrups and manually distilled into rose water.

His shop, though now specializes mainly in rose water and a couple of other traditional herbal syrups which are still prepared as they were centuries ago. A litre of traditionally-made rose water is sold at just Rs 45.

Rosewater made through traditional distillation is a slow process which takes almost 3 to 4 hours. The rose petals are boiled in a copper cauldron, and the vapours are condensed and distilled.

The shelves are stocked with dark-coloured glass, bottles with hand written labels in Urdu and Persian, and antique-looking jars of varying sizes. Some of the bottles in the shop have gathered years of dust, but he wants to preserve them in memory of his forefathers.