Holi Thandai (Indian Spring Festival Drink)

Thandai — the spiced, chilled milk drink of the Holi festival — is the liquid embodiment of Indian spring celebration: cooling, fragrant with rose, saffron, cardamom, and fennel, enriched with soaked almonds and cashews, and associated in some versions with bhang (cannabis-infused preparation consumed ritually during Holi). The non-bhang version is a spectacularly aromatic drink that represents the Indian tradition of spiced beverages reaching back thousands of years. It is prepared by making a concentrated spice-nut paste (almonds, cashews, melon seeds, dried rose petals, cardamom, black pepper, fennel, saffron) blended with warm water and strained, then combined with cold milk and sweetened with sugar. The result is simultaneously cooling and warming — the saffron and rose floral notes, the slight pepper heat, and the richness of the nut base make thandai unlike any other beverage.