Jigarthanda, And Other Drinkable Specimens

Since we first embarked on this trip, everyone who knew anything about Madurai had been repeatedly expressing excitement to taste “Jigarthanda”. In fact, I was informed that it is so iconic that there is even a famous movie about Madurai named after it!

The famous Tamil movie

(At first I didn’t understand because everyone seemed to be pronouncing it the typical Tamilian way – “JigarDHanda”. Later I learnt the intended pronunciation.)

It literally translates to “cool heart”. Very apt for the city because 1) the temperatures soar. And 2) I’ve heard that the people of Madurai are very passionate and hot tempered, so sometimes a quick “heart cooler” might just be the need of the hour (hehe)!

Jigarthanda

So what exactly is it? It’s a falooda-like milk drink. It is made of:

• Thick, reduced milk that is chilled
• Jelly-like globules of china grass (Hindi name: gondh)
• Sarsaparilla (local name: nannari) syrup
• Ice cream (vanilla or almond flavoured)

China grass that's been soaked in water

Stem of Sarsaparilla or Nannari plant, used to make the syrup

It’s creamy and indulgent – almost like liquid kulfi, methinks! And from what the board on the shop claimed, we got the “original taste” of Jigarthanda. So double thumbs up!

The original taste

Apart from this famous Madurai drink (and its eponymous film), I encountered a few other drinkable specimens that are special to Tamil Nadu (TN). One of these was Bovonto. I’d heard of Bovonto before, long ago, on a trip to Pattamadai, TN. At the time I had thought the name sounded quite like “bovine” and so I assumed it was a milk based drink. Turns out, far from! It is a sugary, water based drink with the distinct artificial flavour of grape (though it tasted more like black currant to me).

Bovonto

Another drink I discovered was Panneer soda. At first I was utterly confused. How could soda taste like cottage cheese? But it was explained to me that this was PaNNeer, with two Ns, meaning Rose in Tamil. It was mildly flavoured, not too sweet, and most of all, COLD! Normally, I hate the flavour of rose, but it turns out there is one thing that can make me enjoy it – the wrath of TN weather!

Panneer soda

In fact, with the way Bangalore is beginning to heat up these days, I'm really starting to wish we got some of these beverages here too!