I’ve always been in a hot place. I mean, the Bombay of my childhood, though much colder than it is now, was always hot, hot and in the midst of the hottest. There was a respite once in the middle of the year when the skies cracked during the monsoon, barely doubling from once again to foggy October.
Only as the year progressed to Diwali and Christmas did our cardigans and sweaters fall out of mothballs. Otherwise life was scorching, sultry and hazy.
Everyone had a water bottle, the little pampered one used a thermos flask that kept the water cold for a long time. I would freeze my water bottle at night and take it to school rock-solid. By noon the snow had melted but the water was still cold if there were no glaciers. But as we got older and became more aware of ourselves, was it considered a bit “nambi-pamby” to carry a water bottle?
Although extremely practical, carrying a water bottle for a teenage boy was positively damaging to the image and myth. In those “pre-Bisleri” days chilled water was available outdoors and was drawn from large square aluminum insulated tanks mounted on top of the bicycle.
On a hot day the ugly young man selling cold water could be found everywhere. The tank mounted on the bicycle had a plunger and a U-shaped tap. Metal glasses were chained to the tank for drinking water. You could drink a glass of cold water for 10 paise, when a bottle of mineral water that cost Rs 10 was out of reach for anyone except the very rich.
This water was like the nectar when the sun lit up on a hot sultry day, until you tried to find out where that water came from, and what was its source. It may have come from the municipal tap or maybe even from the drain. Do not know?
Another unhealthy drink that was so refreshing and great on a hot day was sugarcane juice. There was a companion of sugarcane juice on every sidewalk. At any point of time, there was a crowd around his stall. Tall sugarcane placed in a sugarcane cart, shamelessly crushed with unprotected pieces of lemon and ginger in the most unhygienic environment in your presence, poured into sticky, unwashed pots, a swarm of flies around the sweet juice, perhaps among the canes also being crushed.
The man fed the long cane into two iron crushing rollers to which bells were attached. He used to feed pieces of ginger with a cane. Peeling bells begin to make green juices as they emerge from the middle of the crusher and into a soggy steel vessel.
Once sufficiently collected, the juice with a foamy head was poured over ice cubes (source unknown) and served in casually washed tall glasses. “Tastes Nothing Better Than”sugarcane juiceOr sugarcane juice on hot summer days.
Now from the plebeians directly to the oligarchs. Many summer holidays were spent relaxing by the pool at The Willingdon Club. It’s great to be in the water on a hot day and then order a soft drink while sitting on the deck-chair. I wasn’t old enough yet to be able to swallow a cold lager, but an “ice cream float” was legit.
Let me try and explain what an ice cream float is. An ice cream float or ice cream soda (as it is called in the United States), is a cold flavored drink that is poured over a scoop of ice cream in a tall glass. My favorite was always the Coca-Cola Float. Poured a chilled Coke into a glass filled with vanilla ice cream. The liquid rises to the top of the glass as a creamy froth with already carbonated, whipped ice cream.
You keep pouring the rest of the drink into the bottle from time to time as you sip through the float. You can change the favor as you wish. You can make a vanilla-ice-cream and oranges or lemonade. Strawberry ice cream with a fizzy raspberry drink. Or maybe even a beer with your favorite ice cream!
If I had to go indigenous,”buttermilk“Probably the healthiest summer drink for you. I’ve always liked”Lassi” To “buttermilkBut I learned about the benefits of buttermilk only after getting addicted to sweets Lassi, don’t like sweets Lassi Which comes rich in dry fruits, saffron flavor and topped with cream. Just a Simple Plain Sweet, Thin Lassi which has to be churned so vigorously that it foams up and can be swallowed as a fresh liquid and not as a dilute Shrikhand,
after consuming Lassi By Glassful, I Discovered buttermilk, Very healthy, cool and digestible, buttermilk It is made by churning yogurt and cold water without sugar. In fact, it is often mixed with salt, green chillies, coriander, asafoetida and Cumin, often buttermilk Made from curd which is a few days old and has become slightly sour. You can literally put down glasses and glassesbuttermilk‘ without any adverse effect on weight or well-being.
There are several summer drinks that are common in many parts of the country. In mango season, it aam panna, made from raw mango pulp and sugar and mixed with cardamom and nutmeg. then there is a street black sour With tons of black salt. or sattu syrupRoasted chickpea powder, made with cold water, with or without sugar.
then there is water cuminAfter roasting cumin, mix it with ground coriander and chilies in water. In Madurai and other parts of the south, they make jigarthandaIt is a milk based drink mixed with Nannari (sarsaparilla) root syrup.
Maharashtra is famous for its kokum sorbet, Found along the coast of Konkan and Malabar, kokum It is a sour fruit of summer. Mixed with sugar syrup, it is a bright pink-red, sweet and sour drink that is refreshing when cooled.
There is a whole world out there when it comes to local Indian drinks, but my all-time favorite summer drink is the milky pink liquid, which we call “milk cold drink”. It is a half glass of rose sherbet, made with water and rooh afza, and half a glass of milk, chilled in ice. You try it, and let me know if I’m wrong.
Kunal Vijaykar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. What is the name of his youtube channel? The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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