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Yogurt-based drinks such because the lassi from India are go-to drinks for cooling down within the scorching summer season. The glasses at left add mango to the recipe.

Chona Kasinger for NPR

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Chona Kasinger for NPR

Yogurt-based drinks such because the lassi from India are go-to drinks for cooling down within the scorching summer season. The glasses at left add mango to the recipe.

Chona Kasinger for NPR

When Gulrez Azhar travels from his Seattle-area residence to Uttar Pradesh in northern India, the place he grew up, he sometimes tries an “American factor”: smiling at and greeting complete strangers.

“Folks simply take a look at you weirded out” in India, he explains. “So then you must put again that scowl in your face!”

Azhar says that scowl, and the emotions of anger and frustration that he is typically seen accompanying it, are due partly to the oppressive warmth of the area he’s from.

Temperatures in northern India routinely climb north of 110 levels. “I feel the phrase is suffocating,” Azhar says. “In every single place you go, throughout you, it is sweaty, insufferable. It is scorching. You do not really feel like doing something. Only a steady interval of distress.”

Few individuals there have air con, says Azhar, however there are easy cures that provide a modicum of aid: carrying mild cotton clothes, maximizing shade … and having fun with a chilly beverage. For Azhar, and for thousands and thousands in India, it is the candy yogurt lassi.

Warmth researcher Gulrez Azhar and his partner, Afreen Fatima, take pleasure in lassi at residence in Bellevue, Washington. The household tends to drink lassi within the late afternoon throughout the hottest a part of the day. Azhar cites its components as useful in staying hydrated and wholesome throughout excessive warmth.

Chona Kasinger for NPR

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Chona Kasinger for NPR

Warmth researcher Gulrez Azhar and his partner, Afreen Fatima, take pleasure in lassi at residence in Bellevue, Washington. The household tends to drink lassi within the late afternoon throughout the hottest a part of the day. Azhar cites its components as useful in staying hydrated and wholesome throughout excessive warmth.

Chona Kasinger for NPR

“So lassi is one thing, actually, I stay up for. Yesterday, we had two rounds of lassi,” chuckles Azhar. “It is soothing, it takes away all of your warmth. In the event you simply drink water, it would not keep in your abdomen. However with lassi, it has sugar, it has milk, it has electrolytes.”

He thinks of lassi as an entire meal — one which hydrates, nourishes and refreshes.

Throughout our zoom interview, Afreen Fatima, Azhar’s spouse, provided to display easy methods to put together a lassi.

“I will be making two glasses,” she says. For every glass, she measures out two tablespoons of full-fat yogurt, a splash of milk and a tablespoon of sugar. “After which I can even add just a few ice cubes.”

She purées all the things within the blender, pours the lassi into the glasses and takes a sip.

Afreen Fatima prepares mango lassi. Her recipe: milk, canned mango pulp, full-fat yogurt, ice cubes and sugar.

Chona Kasinger for NPR

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Chona Kasinger for NPR

Afreen Fatima prepares mango lassi. Her recipe: milk, canned mango pulp, full-fat yogurt, ice cubes and sugar.

Chona Kasinger for NPR

“It is chilly, it is candy, it is the perfect drink,” she says. “The refreshing feeling of it, it brings a smile in your face.”

Azhar makes fast work of his lassi. “In the event you discover that your entire glass is empty already!,” he declares with glee.

There are quite a few variations on the drink, together with mango lassi, made with pulp or puree of mango. You possibly can add saffron or dried fruits. There are additionally savory lassis that use salt as an alternative of sugar.

“Including yogurt lassi to an arsenal of drinks will be very helpful for cooling the physique and for offering vitality,” says Simin Levinson, a professor of medical diet at Arizona State College close to Phoenix, a spot that is seen deadly warmth this summer season.

When it will get scorching, she says she too makes a yogurt drink — from Iran, the place she grew up. It is known as doogh. “It is extra of a savory drink,” she says. “You possibly can crack some salt and pepper into it. It is often carbonated with some membership soda or seltzer. It is common to crush dried rose petals as a garnish.” You may as well add mint, which is particularly cooling, Simin says.

Levinson says that consuming yogurt-based drinks in scorching climate is sensible. “It does comprise extra vitamins than, say, simply water alone or different forms of sports activities drinks as a result of it does comprise protein, it comprises probiotics,” she says.

Turkey has a yogurt drink named ayran, which is “stored chilly and served alone or [with] a leaf of recent mint.” says Tuncay Taymaz, a seismologist in Istanbul, the place the temperatures this summer season have gone previous 110 levels. “I’m surviving below [the] heatwave,” he says. Different nations within the Center East have comparable drinks.

“I feel particularly within the summertime, it is good to have one thing that’s form of creamy and good for you that does not make you’re feeling weighed down,” says Joanne Chang, a pastry chef and co-owner of Flour Bakery and Myers + Chang restaurant in Boston.

In India, close to the place Afreen Fatima and Gulrez Azhar grew up, within the state of Punjab — the place lassi is alleged to have originated — they are saying they’ve heard of the drink being made in giant volumes.

“They’ve these large glasses,” says Fatima. “They do a jug of lassi,” Azhar chimes in. “There is not any approach I can drink a jug of lassi, not occurring.”

Azhar says he is even heard of big quantities of lassi being blended in Punjab in top-loading washing machines.

“In order that machine is just used for making lassi, not for every other goal,” he says. However he is fast to level out — “washing machines aren’t designed to make lassi!”