KARACHI: A drinks show at the Wok Hei restaurant on Saturday was a unique opportunity to beat the heat by tasting refreshing summer beverages prepared by student chefs and professionals.

From lemonades, mint drinks, falsa juice and the timeless and traditional Rooh Afza and its new variations to milkshakes that included coconut milk too and the more adventurous of hydration supporting mocktails and punch drinks that included fruit chunks, citrus juices, sugar and salt, one was also treated to a cool iconic Southeast Asian dessert known as ‘cendol’, which seemed like a yummy twist on the good old Pakistani gola ganda.

There were also a few drinks that one felt slightly afraid to taste such as the ‘Blue Thunder’ prepared by young Aseef Ayaz and the ‘Blue Lagoon’ prepared by Anum Yousuf. Both drinks were very unnaturally blue in colour, which reminded one of neela thotha also known as the dangerous and quite fatal copper sulfate. It took much urging from the student chef’s to at least take a sip of the concoctions though only the judges were brave and trusting enough to comply.

The main judge, Chef Samreen Junaid, was the one who had to taste all the competition entries but then she was also looking at the presentation, innovation, creativity and nutritional value of each drink.

Malaysian consul general serves as one of competition judges

“Each drink must also have something which would make one stop and want to try it. I am also not looking for just a sugary syrup. It must also carry nutritional value,” she stressed.

And there were plenty of drinks which fitted her criteria. ‘Pineapple Ginger Spark’ by Alishba Haroon and Misbah Saleem got its spark from a fizzy lemon drink and lots of pineapple juice with just a dash of ginger. There was also ‘Peach Sparkle’ by Ishrat Afshan, which was presented very well as the smart young chef first spruced up the glasses she was serving the drink in by coating their rims with yellow and green sugar crystals. Meanwhile, ‘Strawberry Citrus Blush’ by Bushra Javed sounded like a makeup palette but looked delicious, too. ‘Tropical Pineapple Punch’ by Kashfahan Abeer carried a flavourful punch. ‘Pink Guava Mojito’ by Laiba Naseem was making the mouth water even before tasting it.

Other drinks in the competition included ‘Thai Coconut Shake’, Peach Island and ‘Raw Mango Summer Splash’.

The second judge happened to be the kind Consul General of Malaysia, Herman Hardynata Ahmad, who had himself brought with him the Southeast Asian dessert cendol, which he and his gracious wife Mrs Noor Razila Abd Razak had prepared themselves and were offering to all to taste. Of course, it was not a competition entree, just a treat and a sweet gesture from them.

“Malaysia enjoys summer the year round. So our drinks are mostly summer drinks. And cendol is a popular dessert in not just Malaysia but in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand as well,” he said, while explaining that it is made with shaved ice, creamy coconut milk, aromatic pandan or rice flour jelly and rich palm sugar. “It is creamy, sweet and refreshing, perfect for hot days,” he added.

The contestants listened to him intently as many also tried the dessert. Then it was a moment of pride for them when, one by one, he went about tasting and appreciating their drinks.

Show organisers executive editor of Biz Today International Rafiq Vayani and co-founder and director of the Skills Valley Mubeen Durrani also spoke.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2026