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Panakam or Panagam - South Indian Jaggery Lemonade
Panakam or Panagam is a Traditional South Indian Summer drink made of jaggery and lime juice, flavoured with cardamom and slightly spiced with a hint of dry ginger and black peppercorns. This jaggery lemonade is a natural coolant for the tropical summers.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Resting Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 2 tall glasses
Ingredients
- 1 cup crushed or powdered jaggery refer notes
- 5 to 6 cups water
- ¼ cup lime juice refer notes
- 5 to 6 cardamom pods, crushed
- 1 teaspoon dry ginger powder refer notes
- ⅛ teaspoon black peppercorns (optional)
- A pinch of salt (optional)
Instructions
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Dissolve jaggery in 1 cup of water. Then strain the jaggery dissolved water to remove impurities.
Coarsely crush the peppercorns and cardamom in a mortar pestle (along with the cardamom skin) or you can use powder instead.
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Add lime juice, crushed pepper and cardamom, dry ginger powder, salt and the remaining amount of water. Mix well and let it sit for 10 minutes.
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Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
- Do not replace jaggery with sugar. It just defeats the purpose and taste. You can use palm sugar if you don't have access to jaggery or may be brown sugar.
- Use, the jaggery made from palm sugar (dark brown in colour) if possible as it is the highest quality of jaggery. Based on the jaggery you use (the dark variety or the light golden brown), the colour of the drink may slightly differ.
- Some jaggery variety takes time to dissolve. If thats the case, dissolve in water for a longer period or use mildly warm water to speed up the process.
- There is no particular recipe for this drink. You can mix and match the ingredients as per your preference. The recipe mentioned below, yields a mildly sweet and refreshing taste (from the lime juice).
- Tamarind extract is also used instead of lime juice.