These drinks are like a meal in a glass. They contain fresh fruits, dry fruits and ice cream for a cool relief from the scorching heat. They are revered street food items and offer a local flavour of the city. But you don’t have to hit the streets to taste them; just make whip them up in the cool comfort of your home.
Madurai’s jigarthanda
This captivating drink is a combination of thickened milk, ice cream and unsweetened khoya. The addition of nannari syrup and badam Pisin (almond gum) makes is a cooling summer drink. The badam Pisin is a gum extract that swells up to a cloud-like jelly when soaked in water. If you have these essential ingredients, you can make a tall glass of jigarthanda at home.
Sabja seeds floating in tall glass of rooh-afza infused milk topped with a scoop of ice cream is an essential Mumbai summer favourite. Add in some cooked and cooled sev and what you have comes close to a chewy bobas in a bubble tea. The video has strawberry jelly, but you can skip it if you wish to. The rooh afza, sev, ice cream, milk and sabza seeds are most important. Sabza seeds are believed to be naturally cooling.
Mastani is Pune’s quintessential summer drink that uses the favourite fruit of the season—mango. It can be easily recreated a home with a few basic ingredients. Essentially it’s a thick mango shake with fresh mango pieces topped with slivers of almonds and pistas. To take it up a few notches add a pinch of freshly ground cinnamon powder.
