Why gulkand is eaten in summer

The tradition of cooling foods, what it is based on, and how a spoonful is actually used through the hot months.

A seasonal food

In most of north and west India, gulkand appears in kitchens as the weather turns. It is classed in Ayurvedic practice as a cooling food — sheeta virya — and taken through the hot months for that reason.

We should be careful here. "Cooling" in this framework is a classification about how a food is understood to act on the body, not a measurable claim about temperature or physiology. We are describing a tradition that is centuries old and widely followed. We are not telling you it will do anything specific, and if you want that question answered properly you want a doctor, not a producer.

How it is actually taken

A spoon, plain. After lunch, in the worst of the afternoon. A teaspoon is the usual amount.

In cold milk. A teaspoon stirred into a glass of chilled milk is the most common summer preparation, and the one most people find easiest.

In paan. The traditional home, and where most Indians first meet it — the sweet dark layer inside a meetha paan.

With curd. Stirred through plain set curd, which turns it into a very quick dessert.

How much

It is sugar-preserved, so a teaspoon is a serving and not a portion you would double. A 500 g jar taken this way lasts a household most of a season, which is roughly how it is meant to work.