Thandai Powder

Today is the festival of colors also called 'Holi' in India. It is a festival to welcome spring and all its colors. People color each other with different colors and use water to play around. Significance of water is actually to cool down. 

As always food plays a vital role in any festival and Holi is not far behind either. My mother used to make Puran Polis (I need to update the picture here). But there are so many other sweets and snacks that form part of the festival.
Thandai is a drink that is served during this festival. Its a milk beverage infused with mild aromatic spices and dried fruits and rose petals.
People do add bhang (marijuana) to make it an intoxicating adult beverage too. 

We visited friends who had arranged a Holi party at their beautiful home. I volunteered to make thandai along with something else. It was an amazing feeling to see how much everyone loved the drink. 

Ingredients

1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup almonds
2 tablespoons poppy seeds/khuskhus
2 tablespoons melon seeds
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper
10 green cardamoms
2 tablespoons dried rose petals (optional)
a few strands of saffron
1 cup sugar

Method

Take all the ingredients and using a very dry grinder, grind it to a powder. Sieve and grind the coarse leftover powder again. Repeat this process till its fully done.
The above ingredients should yield roughly about 2 cups of thandai powder.

I use whole milk to make thandai. For one cup whole milk (boiled and completely cooled), use about 5 to 6 ice cubes and 2 tablespoons of 'Khus Sherbat' and 1 tablespoon of thandai powder. Blend it all together in a blender/mixer. You can serve it in tall glasses. Straining it is optional.

Notes

• Using the Khus Sherbat  is optional - I like it as this adds a nice green hue and some extra sweetness.
• When you are blending the thandai, you can adjust the amount of sugar as per your like - more or less does not matter.