Made using sattu (roasted black gram flour), lemon juice and cumin powder, sattu ka sherbet is a protein-rich drink that people of Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh swear by to beat the heat during summer.
Indigenous to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, this buttermilk is seasoned with green chillies, coriander leaves, ginger, asafoetida, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
A tart and refreshing summer special made using raw green mango or almost ripened mango pulp combined with jaggery, black salt and roasted cumin powder.
Come summer, Delhi’s streets are lined up with hand carts selling banta soda. Also known as goli soda, fotash jawl and kanche wali bottle, this is a carbonated lemony drink that comes in a unique glass bottle, with a marble placed at its lip.
A summer drink off Maharashtra’s coast, solkadhi is made by combining fresh coconut milk with kokum (a fruit of the mangosteen family), green chilli and coriander.
Another cooling drink from the Konkan belt is the kokum sherbet. It is made by mixing kokum syrup with water and seasoned with black salt and cumin powder.
Phalsa sherbet is a three-ingredient recipe that involves blitzing ripe phalsa berries with water, straining out the juice, and finishing it off with some black salt and roasted cumin powder.
During summers, the Sindhi community whips up a thick concoction of powdered sandalwood, lemon juice, sugar and rose or kewda water (optional). This concoction is mixed with cold water or soda and enjoyed as a summer cooler.
Bel sherbet aka wood apple sherbet is made by soaking the fruit’s soft, brown pulp in water for at least half an hour, and straining the pulp out. It is flavoured with cardamom powder, cumin seed powder, salt/black salt and jaggery.
Invented many moons ago at the Tambe Arogya Bhavan, piyush is a mixture of buttermilk and shrikhand (sweetened and strained hung curd).