Indian weddings are all about fancy food, expensive jewelry, and shiny clothes. Today we bring you the top 15 welcome drinks list to make your wedding a special one!
Wedding menus are catered keeping in mind all the categories of people visiting and their preferences. However, this often leads to the same old boring menu with tasteless cocktails and cold drinks.
You already are aware of the basic tea and coffee variations but do you know about these traditional Indian drinks that decorate the Indian Wedding menus?
Top 15 Indian Wedding Drinks
- Gola
If you are an Indian, there is no way that you haven’t had a gola in your life! A gola is a ball of crushed ice. It is then soaked up in drinks having an umpteen number of tangy and tickling flavors.
Some of the most famous ones are Kala Khatta, Rasbhari, Meetha Limbu, and more. You might wonder why include it in drinks? Because it eventually melts and the kids love it alike.
It is a common sight at weddings to see all the kids hoarded up at this one stall. It is a summer drink that soothes the heated weather around.
- Aam Panna
Mangoes, ripe or raw, will always be the first choice for us Indians for a beverage. Aam Panna is a classic and one of the oldest drinks.
It is a raw mango drink. The pulp of raw mangoes is boiled in sugary water, then a host of tangy spices are added to it.
It cools down the body’s heat leaving a tingling at the end of your tongue.
- Lassi
Lassi or sweetened buttermilk is another heat quencher served at weddings. It is a welcome drink aimed at replenishing all the lost energies of the guests. It boosts up the body and provides probiotic gains too.
- Granita
Granita is a part drink part dessert. It is finely diced watermelon, garnished with miny and spices. It has many variations which include other fruits than watermelon like pineapple etc. It is a sure hit with the guests.
- Nimbu Pani
Nimbu Pani or Lemonade is a must in every wedding and not just Indian. It is the sweet old lemon and sweet water with an occasional temper of mint. It is refreshing and preferred by all.
- Masala Chai
This one is believed to be a goto for mostly the elders. Indian elders have a strange love for tea. And when it is attributed to the goodness of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, clove, ginger, and served in earthen pots, it is their only true love. Hence, a must in every Indian wedding.
- Badam Milk/Kesar Milk
This is more of an after-meal rather than a welcome drink. In every wedding, you will find a person constantly stirring milk in a big vessel and adding almonds and Kesar to it at regular intervals. This is more popular in colder weather, where people gather about the hot vessel and enjoy this sweetened garnished milk.
- Kesar Kasturi – Famous Rajasthani Beverage
Originally from Rajasthan, this one has a royal lineage. It was originally served and consumed only by the royal families.
This is a special drink prepared with some of the most exquisite spices. It is made using 76 different spices each adding a unique essence to the drink.
Kesar Kasturi is a perfect drink to enrich any wedding menu.
- Panakam
Panakam is a drink from the south. It is made by dissolving jaggery in water with some cardamom, ginger, lemon, and mint.
If you wish to add a bit of newness to your wedding menu, Panakam may help you do that. It is a real thirst quencher when the bright sun sucks away all your energy. Also, it refills all your vitals.
Your guests will fall in love with this drink!
- Sambaram
You might wonder if this is the same as the curry you get with dosas, but it is not. Sambaram is a south Indian variation of the good old buttermilk. This one is a spiced-up version.
All weddings down south have a fixed spot on their menu for sambaram. Also, it has a tempering of chilies, onions, ginger, and asafoetida. There is no better drink to beat the southern sun the way Sambaram does.
- Vasantha Neer
Vasantha Neer is an improvised version of the plain regular coconut water. It is a tender glass of sweet coconut water added with a dash of lime and a spoonful of honey.
At weddings, this is loved by children and adults alike.
- Jigarthanda
This is a special drink in the city of Madurai. It has a blurred line between a faluda and milkshake. It has a scoop of ice cream dipped thick milkshake of condensed milk having tree gum.
This drink serves two purposes on a wedding menu, one is of a drink and another of dessert.
- Mango Mastani
Mango Mastani is nothing but a luscious, royal version of the parlor mango shake. It has diced mango, dry fruits, cherries, crunchy nuts, cream, and even a tinge of mint atop.
Adding mango mastani to the wedding menu will make it the highlight of the menu!
- Chandan Sherbet
Did you know you could even consume sandalwood? Chandan sherbet is a lost traditional drink that was served on the finest occasions to celebrate.
And which is a better occasion than a wedding! It is popular at high-end weddings due to the high costs that its ingredients incur. It also has remarkable medicinal properties and has a great taste too.
- Mocktails
Mocktails are one of the most basic choice a caterer offers you but you have to be careful while choose the right caterer for you or you might end up getting sweet colored carbonated soda drinks in the name of “Mocktails”.
Mocktails do look fancy but they need to be delicious too, you don’t want your wedding to look one of those “cheap ones”. You should go for good variations of the classic Mint-Based Mojito like the Kiwi Mint Mojito.
Fruit Mocktails are also very trendy these days as they taste awesome. You can choose citrus mocktails such as a mix of Lemon and Oranges for a day wedding.
Traditional Alcoholic Drinks
Some traditional drinks in India are prepared with rice and local flowers and fruits. These drinks seldom find a place in the wedding menu in the region they are famous in. We must tell you these have an alcoholic aftereffect.
- Mahua
Mahua is a tree that bears yellow lemon-like flowers. They are native to the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. People of the state use these flowers to make a traditional drink from these flowers.
It is consumed majorly by the tribal communities residing in Chhattisgrah and its neighboring states. It is common to find Mahua being served in remote region weddings. This drink has a mild alcoholic effect.
- Kosna
Kosna is a traditional rice beer which is also known as Chuak and Sonti. It is quite popular in most Indian states such as Assam, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand.
Again it is a drink found in the tribal regions. They prepare this drink on all celebratory occasions including weddings.
- Toddy
Toddy is the Palm wine. It is popular with the locals of Kerala. It is also known as Tadi in Madhya Pradesh and Kallu in the Andhra Pradesh state.
Palm toddy is an alcoholic beverage created from all species of palm trees such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms.
It is a common sight at regional weddings with elders celebrating.
- Fenny
Fenny is a local drink of Goa. It is made by either coconut or cashew apple and is a classified country liquor. If you attend any Goan wedding you will be introduced to a host of local drinks, with fenny being one of them.
- Chaang
Chaang is a popular drink at winter weddings in Eastern states. Originally a Nepalese drink, Chhang is made by fermenting millet and is a close relative of beer enjoyed elsewhere.
The millet is cooked and fermented in bamboo barrels called dhungro. The fermentation can take anywhere from 7-10 days to 6 months.
People at eastern weddings enjoy hot cups of Chaang while attending the night ceremonies.
- Handia
Handia is a rice beer made by the indigenous people of Madhya Pradesh as well as Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh. Generally, take a week to be prepared, it is a combination of 20-25 herbs and ran tablets acting as a fermentor of the drink. Served cold, it is lower in strength than other Indian liquors.
- Zawlaidi
Zawlaidi is a wine famous in Mizoram. It is also called “Potion of Love”. The wine is slightly sour. The region it comes from is also vying to become one of the largest grape producers in India. It’s a premium quality wine of the state.
Check this out: Which Is Better For Wedding: Catering or Banquet? [All Details]
Conclusion
India never ceases to display its diversity no matter what you are talking about. In today’s article, we discussed in detail the many drinks that you will find at an Indian wedding.
When we say Indian wedding it can be a South-Indian wedding ceremony being hosted in the bright day-light or a North-Indian wedding being solemnized at midnight.
If this article helped you decide on a drinks menu for your wedding, then do spread the love. Share us with your family ad friends.
Meet the literarian of our group! She loves crafts, paintings, poetry, food, and can lip-sync dialogues from F.R.I.E.N.D.S all day. The world of words fascinates her, a true logophile. A typical millennial with an old touch.
