Thandai
Almonds, melon seeds, pepper and rose ground into cold milk. Holi's drink, and the best thing to hand someone in a heatwave.
Photograph credit: Thandai (Spiced Indian Milk Drink) by Aparna Balasubramanian · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
What Goes With It
- Malpua
- Holi
- Gujiya
How to Make Thandai
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Soak the almonds, melon seeds and poppy seeds in cold water for 4 hours.
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Drain and slip the skins off the almonds.
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Soak the saffron in the warm milk for 10 minutes and crush the threads against the cup.
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Grind the soaked nuts and seeds with the fennel, peppercorns, cardamom seeds, rose petals and 100 ml of the cold milk to a very smooth paste.
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Whisk the paste into the remaining cold milk with the sugar until the sugar dissolves.
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Stir in the saffron milk and the rose water.
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Strain the whole lot through muslin, pressing the solids to get everything through.
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Chill 2 hours.
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Stir well and pour into tall glasses over ice.
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Scatter the pistachios over and serve.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Worth Knowing Before You Cook
Four hours of soaking, and peel the almonds.
Strain through muslin, not a sieve.
Two hours chilling — it tastes different cold.
Leftovers
Keeps 3 days refrigerated. Shake before pouring.
Common Questions
How long does Thandai take to make?
20 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of cooking, plus 6 hours of soaking the nuts and chilling, so allow 6 hours 30 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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