Thandai
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| Kind | Drink |
|---|---|
| Part of the plant | Leaf Flower |
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| Recorded in | Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Social Aspects of the Use of Cannabis in India (1975) |
| First recorded | 1894[1]: 156 |
| Still made | Not known |
Thandai is a cooling drink of bhang ground with spices, nuts and rose petals and mixed with milk or water and sugar. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission listed it in 1894 among the names of the bhang drink in the North-Western Provinces,[1]: 156 and in 1957 I. C. and R. N. Chopra gave it as one of the names of bhang beverages in the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.[2] The anthropologist Khwaja Hasan called it "the famous decoction prepared from bhang" and gave the literal meaning of the name as "cold drink".[3]: 240–241
Making thandai
The commission's simplest bhang drink was the drug pounded "very fine with a little black pepper", diluted with water to the strength wanted and filtered through a cloth. In the North-Western Provinces it went by bhang, siddhi or thandai. Every drinker who could afford it added spices, sugar and milk or curds.[1]: 156–157
The memorandum on hemp drugs in Berar gave a fuller method. Bhang, or the flowers and leaves that dropped from the plants as they were tied into sheaves, was cleaned, boiled, washed with care and dried. A little of it was pounded with sonph, miri, badam, khaskhas and rose-buds and a little water, mixed with cold water or milk, sweetened and filtered. "This is known as bhang or thandai, or a cooling drink", the memorandum says, and it was drunk in the hot weather.[4]: 107
In Hasan's account from north India the dry ingredients come first. Almonds, pistachio, rose petals, black pepper, aniseed and cloves are ground with water on the toothed stone grinding plate (silauti) to a thin paste, which is dissolved in milk before the bhang is added. Some add asafoetida "because of its medical properties", and a few spoons of sugar or jaggery finish it.[3]: 240 The whole process takes an hour or so.[3]: 241
Drinking
Thandai was generally believed to cool the body. Hasan argued that the almonds and condiments made it a supplement to a diet poor in protein and helped replace the salt and water lost in the hot months from March to October. He described the making of the drink as a social occasion. Members of a family, a caste or a circle of friends gathered in a friend's parlour, ground the ingredients together and talked over family, prices and other matters while it was prepared. Shudra and untouchable castes did not join the thandai parties of the twice-born castes and held their own.[3]: 241
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VIII, "Extent of use and the manner and forms in which the hemp drugs are consumed", paras. 415–429, pp. 154–158 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Chopra, I. C.; Chopra, R. N. (1957). "The use of the cannabis drugs in India". Bulletin on Narcotics (1). United Nations: 4–29.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Hasan, Khwaja A. (1975). "Social aspects of the use of cannabis in India". In Rubin, Vera (ed.). Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 235–246. doi:10.1515/9783110812060.235.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in Berar". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. pp. 107–109 – via Internet Archive.