ParsiCuisine.com
Perfect weather for Taari!
That’s a Palmyra tree with a Toddy pot. In the kind of hot, humid weather Mumbai is enduring, temperatures hovering around 36°C, I would gladly walk a mile for a glass of Toddy. Or Taari, as my Zoroastrian friends call it. It is one of their favourite summer drinks. Not to be confused, of course, with the Hot Toddy that five-star barmen mix with cognac, spices, lemon juice and honey in the monsoon and winter months.
The Palmyra, the Date Palm from which Toddy is tapped, does not grow in Mumbai. It prefers a coastal climate. The nearest groves lie in the seaside towns of Dahanu, Gholvad, Daman and Udvada. I would burn through a fair bit of shoe leather in search of a glass here. In those towns, Zoroastrian farmers tap Toddy from their trees before dawn. Visit them for lunch, and you may well be offered a glass of it, often in preference to a mug of Beer.
Toddy tappers climb the Palmyra in the evening. They slice the bud, insert a small pipe, and fix it into a clay pot tied below. Overnight, the sap collects — clear, sweet and gently coconut-flavoured. This is Neera, a refreshing, non-alcoholic drink, cool on the tongue and light on the body. Left to itself in the day’s heat, Neera ferments by evening into Toddy: tangy, sour, and pleasantly intoxicating. What begins as morning sweetness turns, by dusk, into something with a bite. Some call it Palm Wine.
There was a time when Neera was sold in summer at Khadi Gramodyog kiosks on railway stations. Commuters would begin their day with a chilled glass. You could spot these kiosks along NH48 too, on the long, dusty drive from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Now, like Toddy in the city, the Neera kiosks have all but vanished. The Tadgola fruit is still available in Mumbai. But that, somehow, is like eating grapes instead of drinking wine.
Mark Manuel
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