: Before Filter Coffee, This Ancient, Nutritious Beverage Was Tamil Nadu’s Fav Drink #IndiaNEWS #Food In my house, our days ended with taking any leftover rice and soaking it in water for the night.

Before Filter Coffee, This Ancient, Nutritious Beverage Was Tamil Nadu’s Fav Drink #IndiaNEWS #Food
In my house, our days ended with taking any leftover rice and soaking it in water for the night. Then, every morning, my mother and grandparents would consume the beverage by adding buttermilk, salt, and some pickle water like maavadu.

Over the years, our choices of pickles changed depending on our moods and tastes. But this kanji remains a staple.

My father-in-law, too, swears by it. While I wasn’t a big fan growing up, my mother insisted it had cooling properties and was a probiotic. Today, the humble kanji, a powerhouse of nutrition, is among my favourite drinks as well.

This simple concoction is not only packed with health benefits, but has a long history with ancient South India.

Study: Kanji aids in digestion

Pazhaya sadham or kanji served with some onions

In colonial India, coffee was considered a drink of the so-called elites. Up until the 19th century, most households in Southern India would consume what they called neeragaram — fermented rice water. Historian A R Venkatachalapathy, in his book ‘In Those Days, There Was No Coffee’, quotes ancient Tamil accounts that accused coffee or marginalising this drink and those like it.

It is also said that because farming was the major occupation for most families, this drink was predominantly consumed to energise oneself before the work day began.

Even today, variations of this fermented rice are eaten across the country. They go by various names — panta bhat in Bengal, poita bhat in Assam, pakhala in Orissa, and pazhan kanji in Kerala. Each region has this concoction with different sides. Some have it just with salt, some with onions, chutneys, pickles, fish, vegetables etc.

Every year, Odisha celebrates this dish during the Pakhala Dibas on 20th March. In fact, this panta bhat was served in Masterchef Australia as a ‘smoked rice water’ for the grand finale by Kishwar Chowdhury. She served the dish with burnt chillies, mashed potatoes, fried sardines, and onion salsa.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kishwar | MasterchefAU (@kishwar_chowdhury)

According to a report in The New Indian Express, samples of this fermented rice were sent to a lab at the TN Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. These samples showed the presence of probiotic bacteria.

“While Weissella confusa, Streptococcus infantarius and Kocuria kristinae bacteria were found in fermented Navara rice (red rice), in Karuppu Kavuni rice (black rice), bacteria like Enterobacter cloacae complex, Candida tropicalis, Bacillus pantosus, Leuconotoc lactis, and Weissella confuse were identified, said the report.