Local Drinks

1. ചായ

   cāya

   Chaya (tea)

   Usage

   Unless you specify otherwise this arrives with milk and sugar already in it. The staple of the Kerala tea shop, sometimes poured theatrically from a height

2. കട്ടൻ ചായ

   kaṭṭan cāya

   Kattan chaya (black tea)

   Usage

   Tea without milk (kattan chaya). The order to use if you avoid dairy. "Without chaya" means no sugar, "light chaya" means weak

3. സുലൈമാനി

   sulaimāni

   Sulaimani (black tea with lime)

   Usage

   Black tea with lime juice squeezed in. in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts kattan chaya itself goes by this name, and it is indispensable after the wedding meal there

4. കാപ്പി

   kāppi

   Kaappi (coffee)

   Usage

   Coffee, in Kerala tea shops normally served already made up with milk and sugar unless you say otherwise

5. കട്ടൻ കാപ്പി

   kaṭṭan kāppi

   Kattan kaappi (black coffee)

   Usage

   Coffee without milk. As with tea, kattan is the word that means "no milk"

6. ഇളനീർ

   iḷanīr

   Ilaneer (tender coconut water)

   Usage

   The coconut before it ripens, drunk for the water and the soft flesh inside; karikku is the same thing. Ilaneer is the official drink of the state of Kerala

7. സംഭാരം

   sambhāram

   Sambharam (spiced buttermilk)

   Usage

   Buttermilk let down with water and seasoned with ginger, green chilli, curry leaf, lime leaf and salt. Also called morum vellam, and long handed out at roadside water stalls in the hot season

8. മോര്

   mōru

   Moru (buttermilk)

   Usage

   The low-fat liquid left after churning butter out of curd. Drunk as it is, or watered and spiced to make sambharam; Ayurveda calls it takram

9. നാരങ്ങാവെള്ളം

   nāraṅṅāveḷḷam

   Naranga vellam (lime juice)

   Usage

   Small limes squeezed into water or soda. It comes sweet with sugar or salted, so say which you want

10. സർബത്ത്

    sarbattu

    Sarbath (chilled fruit syrup drink)

    Usage

    A Southwest Asian drink of fruit or flower syrup let down with cold water. In Kerala it is typically squeezed lime sweetened with sugar or with nannari (sarsaparilla root) syrup, scented with a crushed citrus leaf

11. നീര

    nīra

    Neera (unfermented palm sap)

    Usage

    Sap that seeps naturally from a cut coconut inflorescence, also called sweet toddy. It contains no alcohol at all. Fermenting it is what produces kallu, so do not confuse the two names if you avoid alcohol

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