Thandai Recipe

Thandai is one of the popular summer drink in Maharashtra. It is the special beverage especially made on Mahasivaratri & Holi Festival. I tasted this awesome drink in one of my friend’s house who is a Maharashtrian, I got this recipe from her and I loved this chill and flavorful drink especially during hot day. The rich flavor of fennel seeds and peppercorns along with nuts gives a nice taste to the drink.

Its also called as Sardai, literally translates to coolant or cold in Hindi. It is a refreshing drink that has a cooling effect and gives instant energy in scorching Indian summers. It contains various cooling nuts and spices like almonds, fennel seeds, magaz (kernel of Watermelon seeds), cardamom, khus khus (poppy seeds) etc. A generous pinch of Saffron threads provides it a distinctive taste & colour. Rose petals, pepper, cashew nuts are other items that are many times added to it. It is also rich in calcium & vitamins.

Tips for making Thandai:

1. Use full fat milk for more tastier Thandai.
2. If you don't have gulkund/rose petals, you can add generous amount of rose water once the thandai is cooled.
3. Don't have poppy seeds, you can skip and increase the nuts.
4. If you don't like bits of nuts coming to your mouth while drinking thandai, you can use fine mesh strainer to strain the thandai.
5. Adjust the quantity of sugar according to your needs.
6. Instead of garnishing saffron threads, we can add it to 1-2 tablespoon of hot milk and then add it to the drink to get a nice saffron color.
7. Thandai should be served chilled. So chill it for 4 to 5 hours before serving, preferably overnight.

You may also want to try:

• Semiya Kulfi
• Oats Smoothies
• Madras Masala Paal
• Ragi Malt
• Panagam

• Boil 3 Cups of milk and allow it to come to room temperature. In a bowl, add the almonds. Add water to soak the almonds and set it aside for 2 hours. In another bowl, add cashews, poppy seeds, fennel seeds, peppercorns, green cardamom and add water and soak it for 2 hours.

• After 2 hours, drain the water from the soaked ingredients. Peel the skin of the almonds and add it to mixer jar. Add drained cashew, fennel seeds, peppercorns, poppy seeds, cardamom to the mixer jar

• Add dry rose petals to the mixer jar. If you don't have it, you can replace with 4 drops of rose essence or 2 teaspoon rose water and grind everything to a smooth paste

• Add sugar to the cooled milk and stir well so that the sugar gets nicely dissolved.

• Add this ground paste to milk and stir well so the paste gets nicely mixed with the milk

• Refrigerate the milk for about 1 hour for the flavor to get incorporated well with milk. After 1 hour, strain the milk in a pitcher.

• Serve the chill Thandai garnished with chopped pistachios and few saffron threads

• The delicious Thandai is a very refreshing drink for summer. Try this and share your comments!

Thandai Recipe