Thandai

Thandai is a cool refreshing summer drink made with sweetened full cream milk and a blend of various dry fruits, rose water and petals, cardamom, saffron etc. This drink is a quintessential part of the Holi celebration which is the festival of colours. It is also made during the festival of Maha Shivaratri.

‘Thanda’ means cool in hindi, so this drink literally translates to a coolant. Holi mostly falls in the month of March and this festival typically marks the onset of summer in India. Since Holi is played outdoors, this cooling drink works great as a beverage during the celebration. This drink however can be enjoyed on any day of summer and is really a retreat and cools your body.

Thandai is quite popular in the Northern part of India, especially in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. During the festival of Holi, if there are two things that are a must for celebration in these states, it would be Thandai and Gujiya (sweet fried dumpling with filling of mawa in it).

From the initial looks of thandai, it might just look similar to the kesar badam milk, however you must taste this wonderful drink before drawing any conclusions. The amount of ingredients used in this dish are definitely more and way complex than a kesar badam milk. It has the cooling effect from the fennel seeds and bit of heat from the black peppercorns and unique depth of flavour and fragrance from the rose water.

How to make Thandai?

Though there are quite a few readymade/ instant thandai mixes and powders available in market these days, but a thandai made in the traditional way tastes so much better and refreshing. There is some amount of prep work required for making Thandai, but it is all worth the effort and time.

Traditionally, a freshly made Thandai paste is used for making Thandai. The thandai paste is made by soaking dry fruits like almonds, cashews, melon seeds, poppy seeds, green cardamom, black peppercorn, fennel seeds and rose petals and then grinding to a smooth paste. This paste is then added to boiled milk along with sugar, saffron and cooked for some time. The milk is then filtered and rose water is mixed and chilled before serving.

The milk becomes wonderfully flavoured and fragrant from green cardamom, saffron and especially the rose water. Filtering the Thandai milk helps eliminate the residue of dry fruits and makes it refined and smooth.

During Holi, some also add a small amount of bhang or cannabis to Thandai which makes you high. My recipe does not contain bhang though, so definitely kids friendly!

The ingredients given in the below recipe works in perfect balance of sweetness from sugar, richness from the nuts, the cooling effect from fennel seeds and the subtle spicy flavour from the whole peppercorns. However if you have a particular preference for any of these flavours or taste, you may adjust the proportion accordingly.

This recipe works best for making a large batch especially for celebration like Holi, or even a party. However you could scale down the quantity of ingredients proportionally to make a smaller batch.

Few Tips to make perfect Thandai

1. It is important to soak the dry fruits (cashew, almonds, pistachio) along with melon seeds, poppy seeds, dried rose petals, fennel seeds, green cardamom and black peppercorn at least for 4 to 5 hours (or even overnight) so that they can be blend smooth. If you are in a hurry, soak for a bare minimum of 2 hours. Peel the skin of almond before grinding.
2. Try to use full cream milk for making Thandai as it tastes better and richer too. You could use low fat milk too, however skimmed or toned milk might not suit for Thandai.
3. It is important to boil the thandai paste along with milk for sometime, so that the flavours get absorbed into the milk.
4. After cooking the milk along with thandai paste, cool the mixture and add rose water and leave it for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before filtering, so that the flavours are well absorbed.
5. It is important to filter or sieve the milk in this method, else you would get the fibrous residue while drinking thandai.
6. Thandai must be chilled thoroughly (preferably overnight or at least 4 to 5 hours) before serving. The taste of thandai gets enhanced on cooling. Do not use ice cubes as it would dilute thandai.

Serving Suggestion

Thandai must always be served chilled after refrigerating it for a minimum of 4 to 5 hours (preferably overnight). Garnish thandai with some finely chopped pistachio nuts, few strands of kesar or saffron and some fresh (paneer roses) or dried rose petals at the time of serving. Thandai stays fresh in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Thandai

Kannan

Thandai is a cool refreshing summer drink made with sweetened full cream milk and a paste of soaked dry fruits, cardamom, saffron and rose extract.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 5 hours hrs

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Refrigerating Time 4 hours hrs

Total Time 9 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Cuisine Indian, North-Indian

Servings 10 Glasses

Ingredients

  

For Thandai Paste

• ¼ Cup Almonds (approx 35 to 40 nos.)
• ¼ Cup Cashew Nuts (approx 20 nos.)
• 2 tbsp Pistachio
• 2 tbsp Melon Seeds
• 2 tbsp Poppy Seeds or Khus Khus
• 1 tbsp Dried Rose Petals
• 2 tsp Fennel Seeds
• 1 tsp Black Peppercorns
• 10-12 nos. Large Green Cardamom
• 1 cup Water

For Thandai

• 2.5 Litre Milk preferably Full Cream
• 1¼ Cup Sugar
• Saffron large pinch
• 5-6 tsp Rose Water
• Chopped Pistachio nuts and Rose petals for garnishing

Instructions

 

• Take all the ingredients mentioned in the Thandai paste in a bowl.
  
• Add 1 cup of hot water to the ingredients and let it soak for at least 4 to 5 hours.
  
• Peel the skin of the almonds. Blend the soaked ingredients along with the water in a mixer grinder till it is a fine paste.
  
• The paste must be as smooth as possible. Keep this thandai paste aside.
  
• Dissolve a large pinch of saffron in around half a cup of hot milk and mix well. Press the saffron well and it should get fully dissolved.
  
• In a large pan, boil the full cream milk and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes.
  
• Now add the saffron milk and sugar and mix well.
• Next add the thandai paste and mix well and cook on low flame for 10-15 minutes
  
• Now let this cool down and rest for at least 30 minutes to an hour till the flavours are absorbed well in the milk.
  
• Now filter the thandai through a sieve to get rid of the coarse fibres.
  
• The residue from filtering process can be discarded.
  
• Finally mix the rose water to the filtered thandai and refrigerate it for a minimum for 4 to 5 hours before serving.
  
• For serving the thandai, granish with chopped pistachio nuts, few strands of saffron or kesar and some dried or fresh rose petals.
  

Notes

• Soak the ingredients for a minimum for 4 to 5 hours, so that it can be blend to a smooth paste. You could also soak the ingredients overnight.
• You may adjust the ingredients according to your taste. You can also skip ingredients like poppy seeds or fennel seeds if you don’t like the taste of it.
• Peel the almonds before grinding it.
• It is important to boil the thandai paste with milk and also later rest for around 1 hour before filtering it, to get the maximum absorption of the thandai paste in milk.
• Addition of rose water is quite important to flavour the thandai. Add this only after filtering it and just before refrigerating. Do not add at the time of cooking thandai.
• If you feel the thandai is too thick for you after refrigerating it, you could add some more chilled milk and sugar as required. Thandai is usually slightly thick.
• You could also add other ingredients like pan and gulkand to the base mix to make Pan and Gulkand flavoured Thandai.

Keyword Coolant, Dry Fruits, Healthy, Holi Special, Indian Drink, Maha Shivaratri Special, North-Indian Drink, Refreshing, Summer, Summer Drink, Thandai

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