MAGAZINE
India's Traditional Drinks — Part II
Pink Noon Chai from Kashmiri winters, Buransh juice from Himalayan rhododendrons — plunging back into the stream of the unusual for the second part of the series.
There is such a wealth of traditional Indian drinks that one article could not hold them. Part II plunges back into the stream of the unusual.
Noon Chai warms ice-draped Kashmiri winters — named not for the hour but for noon, salt. Special Kashmiri tea leaves are crushed by hand and brewed with salt and a pinch of baking powder until the concentrate turns burgundy; milk turns it pink. Cinnamon, cardamom, almonds and pistachios follow. It is also called Sheer Chai or Gulab Chai.
Then to the Himalayan forests for Buransh — juice pressed from the red rhododendron flowers, Uttarakhand's state flower, that set the hills of Uttarkashi, Almora and Pithoragarh on fire each spring.
Published in Liquid Magazine, Volume 2 Issue 1, Q1 2023.
