Monsoon Recipes: Warm Spiced Drinks for the Rainy Season

India's relationship with warm spiced drinks is deeply medicinal. Before the modern cold-and-flu aisle, there was the kitchen, and a specific vocabulary of warming spices (ginger, black pepper, clove, cinnamon, cardamom) that were understood to support the body during the damp, rainy months.

Recipe 1: The Real Masala Chai

Bring 400ml water to boil with 4 green cardamom pods (cracked), 1 small cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, and a 1cm knob of fresh ginger (grated). Simmer 4 minutes. Add 300ml full-fat milk and 2 tsp strong black tea leaves. Bring to the point of boiling, reduce, simmer 2 minutes. Strain, sweeten with jaggery. The milk-to-water ratio matters: this is not builder's tea with spices dropped in.

Recipe 2: Kadha (The Immunity Drink)

Kadha is not chai and should not taste like chai. It is a decoction: concentrated, sharp, medicinal. Boil 1 litre of water down to 600ml with: 1 tsp black pepper (coarsely cracked), 5 cloves, 1 tsp grated ginger, 10 fresh tulsi leaves, 1 small stick cinnamon, 1 tsp raw turmeric (or 1/2 tsp powder). Add a teaspoon of honey after cooling slightly. Drink small quantities: this is medicine, not a beverage.

Recipe 3: Jaggery Ginger Drink

The simplest and oldest of the three. Dissolve 25g of good dark jaggery in 350ml of hot water. Add 1 tsp of finely grated ginger and a pinch each of black pepper and cardamom. Stir, cover for 3 minutes. This is what grandmothers made before spice kits existed.