Simple, practical, and full of everyday flavour, Thandai Recipe for Holi 2025 is a Indian beverage made with simple everyday ingredients in about 40 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 30 minutes
  • Cook time: 10 minutes
  • Total time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 6
  • Category: Beverage
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 4½ cups milk ((1 liter plus half cup))
  • 20 almonds
  • 10 cashews ((substitute with 10 almonds))
  • 15 pistachios ((substitute with 5 to 6 almonds))
  • 1½ tablespoon melon seeds ((magaz))
  • 1½ tablespoon poppy seeds ((substitute with 8 cashews))
  • 1½ tablespoon fennel seeds
  • 12 green cardamoms
  • 1 inch cinnamon
  • 4 to 10 black pepper ((adjust to taste))
  • 5 to 6 tablespoons sugar ((adjust to taste))
  • 1 pinch saffron ((optional))
  • 20 rose petals (or 4 to 6 tsps of gulkand)
  • 2 tablespoons sliced nuts (for garnish)
  • 6 Ice cubes ((optional for serving))

Method

Preparation

  1. Add almonds, cashews & pistachios to a bowl. Pour water to immerse and soak them for 4 hours. To quicken this process you can also soak them in hot water for 1 hour. In another small bowl, soak the poppy seeds and lemon seeds too.
  2. Peel the almond skin and add them to a blender jar along with cashews and pistachios. You can also rub off the pistachios to remove the skin easily.
  3. Drain the water from melon seeds & poppy seeds. Add them to the same grinder jar along with fennel seeds, cardamoms, cinnamon, black pepper, rose petals (optional) and saffron to the blender jar.
  4. Blend all of these to a coarse paste. Then pour half cup milk and blend to a very smooth paste. If you want you may add more milk as needed while blending.

How to make Thandai

  1. Bring 4 cups of milk to a gentle boil in a pot. Then add sugar and the thandai masala paste we just made. Taste test and adjust the sugar to taste.
  2. Turn off the stove and stir well to incorporate the ground paste well with the milk.
  3. Cover this and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Resting overnight gives the best flavors.
  4. Place a filter/strainer over a pitcher. Pour the thandai and pass it through the filter. Press down the solids to extract all of the milk.
  5. Add 1 to 1½ teaspoon gulkand to serving glasses and stir in the thandai.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.