Flavored water: My father weighs in

I wrote today about homemade flavored water. When I called my father for some fact-checking, he responded with the following email:

Dear Roopa,
We used to boil water with pieces of 'karingali' which is supposed to be good for quenching thirst in summer.You can add 'ramacham' or 'hus' roots(which is also widely used in North India to pack window blinds in summer to give a pleasant aroma when moistened),'nannari' or sarasaparilla for getting added fragrabceto the boiled water. In Malabar they also add pieces of 'Pathimukham' which gives water a pleasant deep pink colour but no fragrance. It however is said to have medicinal qualities. 'Srisadan' an ayurveda vaidyasala at Cannanore is marketing a 'dahasamani'/thirst quencher of their own named 'Khadira Shariba'(?) which contains karingali, ramacham, nannari and pathimukham. You may like to check the encyclopedea about khus etc. In North India they have what is called 'thandhayi'.
Achan

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi roopa, that was a wealth of information you have shared :) My mom also used karingali and pathimugham :) I liked the pathimugham becoz of its color :) also my husband's house in trivandrum has a tree whose leaves which we call "all-spice" when added to just boiled water for just 30 seconds and removed, spreads so much fragrance in the entire house which even a scented candle is not a match :) ....sorry for the loooong comment just thought of sharing:)
roopaonline said…
Thanks, RV. The Allspice you mentioned rings a bell -- I'll see what my parents say, but I suspect somewhere along the line I've drunk that too!
Thank u roopa for publishing good information on quenching thirst by using herbal as u mentioned in these blogs!!!!
Hi Roopa - i came accross your page when i was searching some info about padimugam...anyways,the sree sadan ur father mentioned in his mail was a nice surprise - my aunt comes from that family :)...
Anonymous said…
Hi,
is it available in USA?