What is Thandai?

It is a healthy Indian beverage which has a cooling effect and is therefore consumed during summers. It is made up of khus khus, black peppercorns, fennel seeds, rose petals, melon seeds, almonds and other nuts and dry fruits. These ingredients have cooling properties and therefore combine to make a perfect summer beverage. Homemade thandai can be prepared in different forms such as thandai concentrate, thandai powder, etc. This is the recipe for fresh thandai (this is what my mom has always made for me). Herein the ingredients are soaked overnight and the next morning they are ground and blended with chilled milk to make fresh homemade thandai. It is basically a onetime affair or daily affair if you want to enjoy it every day.

Let’s talk about the ingredients for Homemade Thandai

As already mentioned, dry fruits and nuts which have cooling properties are used to make thandai. Further soaking them overnight increases their cooling effect. You can add in or omit the nuts as per your choice. Pistachios can also be added. Cashews can be skipped and so on. However, ingredients which have the cooling properties such as khus khus, black peppercorns etc should not be skipped. Thandai can be prepared in chilled milk or even cold water. Further for the sweetness, I have added tagar / bhura shakkar. That is basically the Indian powdered sugar and can be substituted with powdered sugar.

Already on the blog is the recipe for Thandai concentrate. If you can to have a nutritious chilled beverage without the daily chore of soaking nuts etc, just prepare a bottle of thandai concentrate and be sorted. Here is the recipe.

Other beverages for summers are aam panna. It is made of raw mangoes, fresh mint, etc and is very refreshing. It helps to protect from heat stroke. View its recipe here.