Thandai
Preparation Time
15 minutes
Cooking Time
15 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Drinks
Serves 4
Key Ingredients
- Fennel seeds (saunf)
About This Recipe
Thandai is the drink North Indian homes make for Holi and Shivratri, a sweet, chilled milk scented with spices and nuts. Fennel is the backbone of the classic masala, so this version puts the fennel seeds first: two tablespoons for the four cups of milk, with black pepper and green cardamom behind them.
The masala is ground into a wet paste instead of a dry powder, and the paste is what makes this recipe forgiving: it blends into the milk without separating, and it can be made a day ahead and kept up to two days in the fridge. The finished thandai keeps the same way in a jug with a lid. Brown sugar is measured at six tablespoons, enough for a classic sweetness without burying the spices.
The drink comes out creamy from the almonds and pale green-gold, with a sweet first sip and a warm peppery finish. For a nut-free glass, drop the almonds and double the melon seeds. Jaggery powder swaps in for the brown sugar for a deeper sweetness, and the poppy seeds can be left out if you prefer a lighter masala. Use whole peppercorns and whole cardamom pods; pre-ground powders can leave the milk powdery.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
For the thandai
- Milk — 4 cups
- Almonds — 30 g
- Fennel seeds (saunf) — 2 tbsp
- Black peppercorns — 1/2 tsp
- Green cardamom pods — 8 pieces
- Poppy seeds (khus khus) — 1 tbsp
- Melon seeds (magaz) — 1 tbsp
- Dried rose petals, a few kept aside to serve — 1 tbsp
- brown sugar — 6 tbsp
- Saffron Strands — 1 pinch
- Warm water, for soaking — 2 cups
To serve
- Ice Cubes — 8 pieces
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Serving Suggestions
Serve well chilled in tall glasses over ice, topped with the reserved rose petals, and plate it with gujiya or namak para when you have them. It is a Holi drink, but the chilled version works all through summer. For the plain hot version of the same fennel flavour, see saunf tea.
Tips for Cooking Thandai
Soak the almonds until the skins slide off under a rub; peeled almonds grind smoother than skin-on ones. Grind the masala with spoonfuls of milk so the jar stays cool, and keep the flame low after the paste goes in, since milk boils over quickly. Boil the milk fully before adding the paste, and the chilled thandai will keep up to two days in the fridge.
Chef’s Note
The figures below count only the brown sugar and the two spices: milk, almonds, cardamom, poppy seeds, melon seeds, rose petals and saffron have no printed composition values, so the real glass carries more of everything. As counted, a glass comes to about 97 kcal with 23.8 g of carbs, nearly all of it the brown sugar.
Per serving (approx.): 97 kcal, protein 0.5 g, carbs 24 g, fat 0.5 g, fibre 1.3 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Sep 16, 2026
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