Gooseberry mor (மோர்)

A savoury summer yogurt drink that's also lusciously green

Hey there! My name is Apoorva Sripathi, I’m a writer, editor, and artist. Continuing with the theme of summer drinks, this week’s paid subscriber newsletter is a minty gooseberry beverage that’s easy to make in a blender. I hope you’ll give it a go!

In India, summer lets you suffer for a long time before the monsoon cools down swiftly and surely. Maybe you’re having a better summer than I am. And truth be told, I’m having a better summer than the year before. There’s just no remedy to heat that sometimes skins you alive.

But there are ways to cool yourself down, mostly through food.

It makes sense then that the widely cultivated cucumber finds its roots in India. Citrons and citrus that are highly sought-after during summer is thought to have emerged at the foothills of the Himalayas. The attractively-scented vettiver, now widely used in perfumery, is one of the most cooling plants I can think of that’s rooted in India (in Tamil Nadu, the state I live in). Growing up, we used to drink water out of clay pots, and come summer, my grandfather diligently purchased roots of vettiver¹ to flavour our drinking water and keep us cool. My mother used to dry the roots in the sun and grind them into a fine powder to add to our shikakhai powder with hibiscus, rose petas, and dried orange rinds. If there were any leftover, my grandfather would stitch the roots together into a hand fan that we’d use during summer afternoons when the power would invariably get cut. My neighbour would make lemon-ginger and vettiver sharbats that my sister and I would drink whenever we stopped by their house.