Sip on hot kahwa inside world’s largest igloo cafe in Kashmir’s Gulmarg

Young Minham couldn’t hold his excitement when he saw a white dome-shaped structure that blended perfectly into the snow-covered winter landscape of Gulmarg in northern Kashmir. 

It was a sight that popped out of his English alphabet book, literally – “I is for igloo,” written under an image of an ice home of the Inuit people of the Arctic. 

‘I’ is also for ice cream but in this particular igloo, the welcome drink is a hot cup of “zafrani kahwa,” a beverage with an exotic mix of local green tea leaves, whole spices, nuts and saffron. 

Coolest cup of tea in town 

Welcome to Snowglu – the largest igloo café in the world!

It’s not just the perfect backdrop for a selfie, inside it’s a functioning cafe where traditional Kashmiri kahwa tea and food is served. 

“It is spread over 1,550 square feet and measures 37.5 feet and 44.5 feet in height and diameter,” said its creator Syed Waseem Shah, owner of Kolahoi Green Group of Hotels and Resorts.

Snowglu is the cool new attraction in a touristy Gulmarg, or “meadow of flowers,” located at 9,000 feet above sea level where the Celsius sometimes plummets to minus 12. 

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A pastoral town on Kashmir’s high plateau, 51 km west of Srinagar, Gulmarg was developed as a resort by the British nearly a century ago and it developed into a popular ski hotspot. 

Hotels are dime a dozen here and there’s competition to outdo each other in terms of novelty – out of which the igloo-shaped restaurant was born. 

Boasting traditional Kashmiri decor, the chairs and tables at Snowglu are covered with sheepskin with  Kashmiri kettles known as samovars placed on the tables.

Every day before the café opens for customers, a man walks around inside and circulates smoke from the aromatic Harmel or Esfand seeds as part of a Kashmiri tradition of keeping the evil spirits away.

Brains and hands behind Snowglu

A young entrepreneur, Waseem, was inspired on his frequent travels to Europe – Switzerland’s Zermatt to be precise – to build one back home in the Himalayas. 

His first café took more than 15 days to build. 15 feet high and 24 feet wide, with four tables made of ice and snow, and space for 16 people at one time.

He ran into some challenges while building it. 

The snow in Kashmir is powdery, so one had to figure out how to pack the snow to put together a structure that would hold for at least a couple of months.

Then came the big one, larger than the one in Switzerland that the Guinness Book of World Records says has a height of 33.8 feet and a diameter of 42.4 feet. 

With 10 tables, 40 people can eat at a time. It took 1,700 man-days with 25 people working day and night to complete it.

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Another entrepreneur, Tariq Ahmad, was contracted by tourism authorities to build an igloo cafe this year. 

“Planning started in autumn. Architects, designers, supervisors, workers laboured, often in sub-zero temperature, to build the café in more than a month,” Tariq said.

Workers wore special protective gear to prevent frostbite or hypothermia. 

A fairy tale experience 

The igloo cafe was enough to tempt Deepika, a tourist from Nagpur, to swing by Gulmarg in her first winter visit to Kashmir. 

“It is extremely amazing. I heard about ice restaurants in Europe, but to sit in one in my own country is wonderful.” she gushed.

“This is the first time I have seen an igloo cafe. It’s beautiful. It’s so chilly outside, but very warm and cosy inside. And the food is also nice. The kahwa is soothing,” said another tourist who came with his wife.

It’s encouraging to see tourists return to the tourism-dependent Himalayan region after the pandemic. 

Local businesses are trying to design innovative experiences for the visitors so they can enjoy a memorable holiday in sub-zero temperatures, known as “chillai kalan”, the 40-day chilliest period of the winter.

“Nature has been so bountiful to us. We must make the most of this bounty, but in an eco-friendly way. Novel ideas like the igloo café will help us stay high in the global tourist market,” said Faz Lul Haseeb, the director of tourism, Kashmir. 

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The idea has caught on. If snow and ice is not someone’s cup of tea, there’s a set of three glasshouses in the shape of geodesic domes on the lawns of Kolahai’s property in Gulmarg. 

These transparent igloos offer a 360-degree view of the landscape, all four seasons. 

The lead image at the top shows an igloo café made of glass arranged in a geodesic shape (Photo by Nasir Yousufi)

Nasir Yousufi is a journalist based at Srinagar.