Panakam also known as Panagam or Panaka is a traditional cooling drink from South India and is especially made during the Sri Rama Navami festival. Preparing panakam is super easy and it is made with lemon juice, jaggery, ginger powder, green cardamom powder and black pepper.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Total Time10 minutesmins
Course: Beverages
Cuisine: Andhra, Karnataka, South Indian, Tamil Nadu
Mix very well and let the jaggery soak in water for 30 to 40 minutes till all of it is dissolved. If there are impurities in the jaggery syrup, then filter the solution using a fine strainer.
Add the lemon juice.
Next add ginger powder, green cardamom powder, black pepper powder and salt.
Yo can also add a pinch of edible camphor. If offering panakam to deities then you can add edible camphor.
Mix very well.
Offer panakam to the deities. If offering to the deities, then you can add a few holy basil leaves (tulsi leaves) in the panakam. If serving to your family and friends, you can refrigerate or add some ice cubes in the panakam.
Notes
You can add less or more water as needed.
Ensure that you use fresh lemon to extract the juice and not bottled lemon juice.
Edible camphor is optional and can be skipped. Tulsi leaves can also be skipped if you do not have them.
You can add more or less jaggery according to your preferences.
Instead of jaggery, you can also use palm jaggery.
The panakam recipe can be easily scaled according to your needs.