Rhododendron Juice?

We had Rhododendron Juice or 'Buransch' as locally called from a roadside stall while trekking up to Tunganath from Chopta in Garhwal region. It was refreshing, that is, very sweet to taste as well as to smell and is known to be good for lungs and heart (but definitely not for diabetic persons because of the sweet taste). The shop-owner said he had made it in April when the flowers bloomed and preserved it in jerrycans which would last till November.

But when we had been to Sikkim last month and found lots of rhododendron trees flowering, we searched for the juice at Lachung and Yumthang in North Sikkim, but the local people here were extremely surprised that such thing existed and insisted that rhododendron flowers were very poisonous and they would never attempt to make juice out of those.

This makes it clear there are specific species of rhododendron suitable for consumption as people in the mountains tend to have the knowledge on edible local flora/fauna .

As far as I know, the ones growing across India have no such issues. I have eaten the flowers many a times and in good quantity and faced no problems at all (cannot comment on adverse effect on mental capabilities though)

About Rhodendrons in north east, read This