CHENNAI: The word Holi paints a vibrant picture in our mind — a myriad of colourful faces, groovy Bollywood music, lots of gujias, malpuas and endless laughter. But, here’s one beverage synonymous to the festival and arguably the hero of the day — thandai! With Holi all set to be celebrated on Friday, we take a look at restaurants in the city that deliver thandai right at your doorstep, thanks to Uber Eats.
Made of milk, rich spices and nuts including saffron, pepper, rose petals, almond and fennel seeds, thandai has been a traditional Holi drink for years. Mr Papdi, a restaurant in Velachery, makes thandai shakes, and its co-founder Dhivya Radhakrishnan says, “Thandai has been a huge part of my childhood and at our restaurant it’s made in the most authentic way! We stick to the traditional recipe. Last year, a few customers requested something special for Holi and we made thandai. After the response we received, we’ve made it a regular.”
After a ‘happy-tired’ day of Holi, a glass of thandai is sure to cool you down. Rahul Chabbria, owner, Flavours of Banaras, says, “Since Holi is celebrated in the onset of summer, the drink helps us beat the heat and also has a lot of health benefits.”
The restaurant prepares a special thandai and they source their ingredients. “The flavour of thandai differs depending on the ingredients used. So, the spices and ingredients we get here in Chennai don’t work for us. Most of our ingredients are sourced from suppliers in Banaras after which it is ground and filtered to make the drink. It is a perfect cold drink for the Chennai summer,” he says.
This drink, prominent in North India, has gradually made its way to the menu of different restaurants in the city. “The name is peculiar and people want to know what it is made of and how it tastes. If the badam milk is famous in the south, thandai is the northern variant of it,” shares Jayakrishna Madan, Kimberly house, Aminjikarai. “We make our thandai with the mixture from Gulabs brand, which is known for its traditional and authentic value,” he adds.
While there are multiple variants of thandai, including badam and bhaang thandai, Chennaiites can explore other ingenious variants at Creamy Inn. The restaurant serves a thandai shake, ice cream and a sundae. “It’s a thickshake and the ice cream variant will have vanilla ice cream topped with thandai flavours and served on a waffle cone (dine-in). For delivery, we give it in a cup. The Thandai Sundae is our Holi special dish and we will add fruits including figs and other nuts. They are all prepared on order,” explains P Prajeesh, manager, Creamy Inn.
The drink has a limited yet regular customer base in Chennai. Rahul says, “I have customers who come at 11 am everyday and wait for 15 minutes to drink thandai. People enquire about it all the time and the drink has its own niche crowd in the city.”
