Local Drinks

1. چائے

   chāy

   Chai (tea)

   Usage

   The most-consumed drink in Pakistan. Unless you say otherwise you get strong tea with milk and sugar. Say "kam chini" for less sugar

2. دودھ پتی

   dūdh patī

   Doodh patti (tea brewed in milk alone)

   Usage

   Tea boiled in milk with no water at all. The full name is doodh patti chai; shops write the short form. Richer and slightly dearer than ordinary chai, and the Punjab favourite

3. کالی چائے

   kālī chāy

   Black tea

   Usage

   Tea without milk — popular in Karachi. The safest thing to name if milk does not agree with you

   Grammar Note

   چائے is feminine, so the adjective takes the feminine form کالی rather than the masculine کالا

4. مسالا چائے

   masālā chāy

   Masala chai (spiced milk tea)

   Usage

   Chai boiled with cardamom, ginger and cinnamon. A Karachi favourite.

5. قہوہ

   qahwa

   Qahwa (green tea)

   Usage

   In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Kashmir the dominant tea is green and is called qahwa. Never served with milk; often scented with cardamom or saffron. ⚠ The same word means coffee in Arabic — do not read it through Arabic

6. نون چائے

   nūn chāy

   Noon chai (Kashmiri pink salt tea)

   Usage

   Also called Kashmiri chai, gulabi (pink) chai and namkeen (salty) chai. Green tea turned pink with bicarbonate and milk — salted, not sweet — topped with pistachio and cardamom, drunk at weddings and in winter. ⚠ Do not order it expecting a sweet drink

7. لسی

   lassī

   Lassi (yoghurt drink)

   Usage

   Churned yoghurt, made either sweet or salted — say which you want. There is also mango lassi. Lahore is known for serving it from big earthenware pots

8. روح افزا

   rūh afzā

   Rooh Afza (rose-flavoured cordial)

   Usage

   A concentrated syrup first compounded in 1907; in Pakistan it is made by Hamdard Laboratories. Diluted with water or milk, and a fixture at iftar. ⚠ A brand name, but understood as the name of the drink

9. گنے کا رس

   gannay kā ras

   Sugarcane juice

   Usage

   Pressed to order at roadside machines in summer, usually with lemon and rock salt. ⚠ The ice may be made from untreated water — say "barf ke baghair" for no ice

   Grammar Note

   گنا shifts to its oblique form گنے before the genitive کا

10. سکنجبین

    sikanjabīn

    Lemonade (lemon squash)

    Usage

    Lemon juice, sugar and salt in water — the summer standby. Stalls usually display the shorter form لیمو پانی (limu pani)

11. ستو

    sattū

    Sattu (roasted-grain flour drink)

    Usage

    Sattu is a flour made by roasting wheat or barley, which is then stirred into water as a sharbat. Strictly the flour is what the word names; the drink is what you make from it. Widely drunk in the Punjab as a summer cooler

12. فالودہ

    fālūda

    Falooda (vermicelli milk drink)

    Usage

    Milk, rose syrup, vermicelli and basil seed layered in a tall glass, usually crowned with ice cream — halfway between a drink and a dessert. Counted both as a drink and as a dish

13. کافی

    kāfī

    Coffee

    Usage

    A loanword. Outside city cafés you will usually be handed instant coffee. ⚠ The identical spelling is also the everyday adjective "enough, quite a lot" — point at the menu, or pair it with چائے, so it is read as the drink

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