What is the difference between lassi and buttermilk?

Lassi is a thick drink made by whisking curd with water and sugar or salt, and is especially popular in Punjab. Buttermilk (chaas, majjiga, or mor) is thinner — it is the liquid left after churning curd for butter, or curd diluted with water and flavoured with salt, cumin, ginger, and curry leaves. Both have been drunk in India for centuries to cool the body and aid digestion.

When did Indians start drinking tea?

Some communities in Assam, such as the Singpho, drank tea from wild plants long before the British arrived. Wild Assam tea was identified by Robert Bruce in 1823, commercial plantations grew from the 1830s, but most Indians began drinking tea only in the 20th century after campaigns by the Indian Tea Market Expansion Board in the 1930s and 1940s. Masala chai with milk, sugar, and spices became India's everyday drink.

How did coffee come to India?

According to legend, the Sufi saint Baba Budan brought seven coffee beans from Yemen in the 1600s and planted them in the Chikmagalur hills of Karnataka. Coffee plantations spread in the 19th century, and today Karnataka grows most of India's coffee. South Indian filter coffee, made with chicory and served in a steel tumbler and dabara, is famous across the country.

What is Amul and why is it important?

Amul is a dairy cooperative brand from Anand, Gujarat. The Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union was formed in December 1946, and under Verghese Kurien the Amul brand was launched in 1955. Its model inspired Operation Flood (1970), which helped India become the world's largest milk producer by 1998.

Why did Coca-Cola leave India in 1977?

In 1977 the government required foreign companies under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act to reduce their foreign shareholding, and Coca-Cola was also asked to share details of its formula. The company chose to leave India. Indian brands such as Thums Up, launched by Parle in 1977, Limca, Gold Spot, and Campa Cola filled the gap until Coca-Cola returned in 1993.

When did Frooti launch?

Parle Agro launched Frooti, a mango drink, in 1985. It was one of the first Indian drinks sold in a Tetra Pak carton, which kept the drink safe without refrigeration and made it easy to carry.

When did café culture start in India?

Indian Coffee Houses, first opened by the Coffee Board in the 1930s and later run by workers' cooperatives from 1957, were early meeting places for students and writers. Modern café chains began when Café Coffee Day opened its first café on Brigade Road in Bengaluru in 1996, followed by Barista in 2000 and Tata Starbucks in 2012.

Where is India's wine capital?

Nashik in Maharashtra is called India's wine capital. Sula Vineyards released its first wines there in 2000, and Maharashtra's grape processing policy of 2001 encouraged many more wineries. Indian wine is made mainly in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Alcohol is only for adults above the legal age, which differs by state, and some states such as Gujarat and Bihar ban it.

Are energy drinks safe for children?

Energy drinks contain caffeine and usually a lot of sugar. India's food regulator FSSAI limits caffeine in these drinks to 300 mg per litre and requires labels saying they are not recommended for children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and people sensitive to caffeine. Doctors advise children to drink water, milk, buttermilk, or coconut water instead.

What are some traditional Indian summer drinks?

Popular traditional summer coolers include nimbu pani (lemonade), aam panna (raw mango drink), jaljeera, buttermilk, lassi, sol kadhi from the Konkan, sattu sharbat from Bihar, panakam from South India, rose sherbets, sugarcane juice, and tender coconut water.

Daily Life Timeline

Beverages Timeline of India: Milk & Lassi → Chai & Coffee → Cool Drinks → Wine → Energy Drinks

For centuries Indians drank milk, lassi, buttermilk, and fruit sherbets. Tea gardens and coffee houses spread in colonial times, the doodhwala and Amul brought milk to towns in the 1950s, chai stalls and desi colas such as Thums Up ruled the 1970s and 1980s, cafés and Indian wine grew after liberalisation, and in the 2020s energy drinks, cold brew, and chai cafés fill city fridges and streets.

This timeline covers milk, curd, lassi and chaas, sherbets, toddy and feni, Assam and Darjeeling tea, coffee and filter coffee, goli soda and Rooh Afza, Amul and Operation Flood, colas, Frooti and Tetra Paks, bottled water, café chains, Nashik wine, energy drinks and caffeine rules, and the healthy-drinks trend.

Milk & Lassi → Assam Chai 1977 Thums Up → 1996 Cafés 2020s Energy Drinks & Cold Brew

Why the Beverages Story Matters

What we drink says a lot about who we are. A glass of lassi on a Punjab farm, a steel tumbler of filter coffee in Chennai, a kulhad of chai on a railway platform, and a chilled cola at a wedding each carry a story of farming, trade, colonial history, advertising, and technology. The journey from churning buttermilk at home to picking an energy drink from a glowing fridge shows how India’s tastes, health, and economy changed.

Big picture

India’s beverages journey in one view

Milk, curd, lassi, buttermilk, sherbets, and toddy were India’s traditional drinks. The British turned Assam and Darjeeling into tea gardens and campaigned to make Indians tea drinkers, the dairy cooperative movement brought milk to cities after independence, Indian colas thrived when Coca-Cola left in 1977, cafés and wineries grew after 1991, and energy drinks and chai cafés arrived in the 2010s. Related timelines: White Revolution, Golden Revolution, railways.

1823

Wild Assam tea identified

1946

Amul dairy cooperative founded

1977

Thums Up launched as Coca-Cola exits

1996

First Café Coffee Day in Bengaluru

Split image with an elderly village couple in a white dhoti and cotton sari drinking lassi from clay cups beside an earthen pot of buttermilk and a brass lota on the left, and four young friends in a modern city café laughing over iced coffees, a tender coconut, and a slim drink can on the right — From lassi in the courtyard to cold coffee and canned drinks in the café (artistic illustration).

Indian Beverages Then vs Now at a Glance

Feature	Then	Now
Morning drink	Milk, kanji, or buttermilk	Chai, coffee, or green tea
Milk source	Home cow or the doodhwala	Pouches, Tetra Paks, and apps
Summer cooler	Lassi, nimbu pani, and sherbet	Colas, juices, and iced coffee
Fizzy drinks	Goli soda in marble bottles	Colas and energy drinks in cans
Coffee	Filter coffee at home in the South	Cafés, cold brew, and instant coffee everywhere
Serving	Brass tumblers, kulhads, and lotas	Plastic bottles, cans, and paper cups
Where people drank	Home, village well, and tea stall	Cafés, malls, gyms, and offices
Cooling	Clay matka and ice from the market	Fridges and chilled display coolers
Health worry	Contaminated water and milk	Too much sugar and caffeine
Adult drinks	Toddy, feni, and local brews	Beer and Indian wine from Nashik and Karnataka

🥛 AncientAncient – 1822

Milk, Lassi, Sherbet & Toddy

For thousands of years Indian families drank fresh milk from their own cows, churned curd into butter and buttermilk, and cooled off with lassi, panakam, and fruit sherbets. Coastal villages tapped palms for toddy, royal kitchens chilled sherbets with mountain ice, and coffee arrived in the hills of Karnataka.

Village woman in a colourful sari churning curd with a rope-wound wooden stick in a large earthen pot, with a brass pot of milk and clay cups of buttermilk beside her, a small boy holding a clay cup, a copper vessel topped with mint on a stool, and a cow tied near a thatched hut — Churning curd with a wooden mathani to make butter and buttermilk (artistic illustration).

c. 1500–1000 BCE: The Rigveda praises milk, curd, and ghee, and describes the ritual drink soma; cattle are a measure of wealth.
c. 300 BCE–200 CE: The Arthashastra names a superintendent to regulate liquor such as sura, and Ayurvedic texts such as the Charaka Samhita praise takra (buttermilk) for digestion.
1500s: Mughal emperors enjoy fruit sherbets cooled with ice brought from the hills, and the Portuguese bring the cashew to Goa, later distilled into feni.
1600s: Legend says the Sufi saint Baba Budan brings seven coffee beans from Yemen and plants them in the Chikmagalur hills of Karnataka.

Technology

Wooden churner: Curd to butter and chaas.
Clay matka: Natural water cooling.
Palm tapping: Fresh neera and toddy.

Features

Home-made: From the family cow.
Seasonal coolers: Aam panna, panakam.
Brass and clay: Lotas and kulhads.

🍃 Tea1823 – 1946

Tea Gardens, Coffee Houses & Soda

The British turned the hills of Assam, Darjeeling, and the Nilgiris into tea and coffee estates, mostly to export to Britain. Soda water in marble-stoppered goli bottles and bottled sherbets appeared in towns, and from the 1930s tea boards and coffee houses set out to make Indians everyday tea and coffee drinkers.

Early 1900s Assam tea garden with women pluckers in saris carrying large cane baskets on their backs picking leaves from rows of tea bushes, a supervisor in a pith helmet in the distance, shade trees, and a wooden colonial tea factory with a tin roof against misty hills — Tea pluckers with cane baskets in an early 1900s Assam tea garden (artistic illustration).

1823: Robert Bruce, guided by the Assamese nobleman Maniram Dewan to the Singpho chief Bisa Gam, finds tea plants growing wild in Assam.
1839–1841: The first Assam tea is auctioned in London (1839) and tea is planted in Darjeeling (1841); Edward Dyer’s brewery at Kasauli, set up in the 1820s, is one of Asia’s earliest.
1906: Hakeem Hafiz Abdul Majeed creates the rose sherbet Rooh Afza in Old Delhi, while goli soda in marble-stoppered Codd bottles becomes a street favourite.
1930s–1942: The Indian Tea Market Expansion Board hands out tea at railway stations and factories, the first India Coffee House opens in Bombay (1936), and the Coffee Board is set up (1942).

Technology

Tea factories: Withering, rolling, drying.
Codd bottles: Marble-sealed soda.
Coffee roasting: Filter coffee with chicory.

Features

Railway chai: Tea on platforms.
Export crops: Tea and coffee estates.
Sherbet bottles: Rooh Afza in summer.

🚲 Doodhwala1947 – 1969

Doodhwala, Amul & the First Colas

After independence the doodhwala cycled to every door at dawn with milk cans, while dairy cooperatives and milk colonies began supplying pasteurised milk to growing cities. Chai became the national drink at home and on railway platforms, and the first bottled colas and orange sodas appeared at weddings and fairs.

1950s town street at dawn where a turbaned doodhwala in a white kurta, standing beside his black bicycle loaded with aluminium milk cans, pours milk with a long-handled measure into a brass pot held by an elderly man at the doorway of an old house, as a boy watches and a cow and a horse carriage wait on the street — The doodhwala measures milk into a brass pot at the door (artistic illustration).

1946–1955: The Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union is formed at Anand in December 1946; with Verghese Kurien it launches the Amul brand in 1955.
1949–1951: Bombay’s Aarey Milk Colony is set up to supply the city with hygienic bottled milk.
1950s: Coca-Cola is bottled in India and Parle launches Gold Spot orange soda; sugarcane juice carts, nimbu pani, and goli soda cool the summers.
1957–1965: Workers’ cooperatives take over the Indian Coffee Houses (from 1957), Bisleri starts bottled water in Bombay, and the National Dairy Development Board is set up at Anand (1965).

Technology

Pasteurisation: Safer city milk.
Glass milk bottles: Sealed with foil caps.
Bottling plants: Colas and sodas.

Features

Doorstep milk: Doodhwala at dawn.
Cooperatives: Farmers own the dairy.
Party drinks: Bottled sodas.

🥤 Cool Drinks1970 – 1990

Chai Stalls, Thums Up & Frooti

Operation Flood made milk plentiful, and the roadside chai stall with its kulhads and boiling kettle became the meeting place of every town. When Coca-Cola left India in 1977, Indian “cool drinks” such as Thums Up, Limca, and Campa Cola took over, while Frooti in a Tetra Pak and Rasna at home became childhood favourites.

1980s railway platform chai stall where a chaiwala in a vest pours steaming tea from a height into a steel vessel beside a big aluminium kettle on a stove and stacks of clay kulhads, with a wooden crate of glass soda and orange drink bottles, passengers with suitcases sipping tea, and a blue and cream train alongside — Kulhad chai and a crate of bottled cool drinks on a railway platform (artistic illustration).

1970–1974: Operation Flood begins linking village dairies to city markets, and Mother Dairy opens milk booths in Delhi (1974).
1971–1976: Parle launches the lemon drink Limca (1971) and the mango drink Maaza (1976); Rasna concentrate later becomes a cheap home summer drink.
1977: Coca-Cola leaves India rather than follow new foreign-exchange rules; Parle launches Thums Up, and Campa Cola and the government’s Double Seven fill the gap.
1980s: Frooti (1985) is sold in handy Tetra Pak cartons, and pioneering wineries near Pune and Bengaluru start making Indian grape wine.

Technology

Tetra Pak cartons: No fridge needed.
Returnable bottles: Crates and deposits.
Milk grids: Tankers and chilling centres.

Features

Chai stall culture: Kulhad and gossip.
Desi colas: Indian brands rule.
Mango drinks: Maaza and Frooti.

☕ Café1991 – 2009

Global Colas, Cafés & Indian Wine

Liberalisation brought Pepsi and Coca-Cola back with film-star advertising, packaged water became a necessity, and café chains made a cold coffee the new hangout for young people. Flavoured milk and packaged lassi filled dairy fridges, and vineyards around Nashik began producing Indian wine for adult drinkers.

2000s city café with red walls and wooden chairs where four college students laugh around a small table with tall cold coffees topped with ice cream and two cappuccinos, one with a laptop and another with a phone, as a barista works an espresso machine and an auto-rickshaw passes the window — Cold coffee and cappuccinos become the new hangout in 2000s cafés (artistic illustration).

1990–1993: Pepsi enters India (first as Lehar Pepsi), and Coca-Cola returns in 1993 and buys Thums Up, Limca, Gold Spot, and Maaza from Parle.
1996–2000: Café Coffee Day opens its first café on Brigade Road, Bengaluru (1996), and Barista follows (2000), turning coffee into a youth hangout drink.
1998–2001: India becomes the world’s largest milk producer (1998); Sula Vineyards releases its first wines in Nashik (2000), and Maharashtra’s 2001 grape policy helps Nashik become the wine capital.
2000s: Packaged water, flavoured milk, and energy drinks spread in cities; a 2003 report on pesticide residues in soft drinks sparks a national debate on drink safety.

Technology

Espresso machines: Cappuccino and latte.
PET bottles: Light and disposable.
Visi-coolers: Chilled drinks in every shop.

Features

Café hangouts: Coffee with friends.
Celebrity ads: Cola wars on TV.
Nashik wine: Indian vineyards grow.

⚡ Energy2010s – Future

Energy Drinks, Chai Cafés & Healthy Sips

In the 2010s energy drinks moved from gyms and parties to every small-town shop, while chai cafés, global coffee chains, and Indian speciality coffee roasters gave old drinks a new style. Worries about sugar and caffeine brought new rules and taxes, and many people turned back to buttermilk, coconut water, kadha, and plant-based milks.

Modern Indian convenience store at night where a young man in gym clothes reaches for a colourful can in a brightly lit glass-door fridge stocked with energy drinks, bottled cold coffees, juices, and cartons of plant milk and buttermilk, as a young woman beside him holds a bottle of cold brew and a smartphone — Energy drinks, cold brew, and plant milks side by side in a 2020s store fridge (artistic illustration).

2010–2012: Chai Point (2010) and Chaayos (2012) open modern chai cafés, and Tata Starbucks opens its first store in Mumbai in October 2012.
Late 2010s: Cheaper energy drinks reach small towns; FSSAI caps caffeine at 300 mg per litre with warning labels, and GST taxes sugary aerated drinks at 28% plus a cess from 2017.
2020–2023: The UN marks the first International Tea Day on 21 May 2020 after India’s proposal, kadha and haldi doodh surge during the pandemic, and Reliance relaunches Campa Cola (2023).
Future: Less sugar, plant-based and millet drinks, probiotic buttermilk, Indian speciality coffee, recyclable packaging, and clearer front-of-pack labels will shape what India drinks.

Technology

Cold brew: Slow-steeped coffee.
Aluminium cans: Recyclable packs.
Vending and apps: Chai on order.

Features

Caffeine labels: Not for children.
Healthy swaps: Coconut water, chaas.
Craft drinks: Speciality chai and coffee.

Traditional Drinks from Across India

Rustic wooden table with regional Indian drinks including filter coffee in a steel tumbler and dabara, masala chai in a clay kulhad, a tall glass of lassi topped with cream, pink sol kadhi, green aam panna, dark jaljeera with mint, nimbu pani with lemon slices, rose sherbet, and a tender coconut with a straw, surrounded by lemons, mint, cardamom, and green mangoes — Filter coffee, chai, lassi, sol kadhi, aam panna, jaljeera, nimbu pani, rose sherbet, and coconut water (artistic illustration).

Drink	Region	Main ingredients
Lassi	Punjab and North India	Curd whisked with sugar or salt
Chaas / majjiga / mor	All over India	Thin curd, cumin, ginger, curry leaves
Filter coffee	Tamil Nadu and Karnataka	Coffee with chicory, milk, and sugar
Masala chai	All over India	Tea, milk, ginger, and cardamom
Kahwa and noon chai	Kashmir	Green tea with saffron and almonds; pink salted tea
Sol kadhi	Konkan and Goa	Kokum and coconut milk
Aam panna	North and West India	Raw mango, mint, and roasted cumin
Sattu sharbat	Bihar and Jharkhand	Roasted gram flour, lemon, and salt
Panakam	Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka	Jaggery, dry ginger, and cardamom
Thandai	North India, especially at Holi	Milk, nuts, fennel, and rose petals

Famous Indian Drink Brands and Cafés

Name	Started	What it is
Rooh Afza	1906	Rose sherbet from Old Delhi
Indian Coffee House	1936	Coffee houses, cooperative-run from 1957
Amul	1946 (cooperative), 1955 (brand)	Milk, lassi, and dairy drinks
Gold Spot	1950s	Orange soda by Parle
Bisleri	1965	Bottled drinking water
Limca	1971	Lemon-lime soda
Thums Up	1977	Strong Indian cola
Frooti	1985	Mango drink in a Tetra Pak
Café Coffee Day	1996	India’s first big café chain
Sula Vineyards	1999 (first wines 2000)	Winery in Nashik
Chaayos	2012	Chai café chain

How Much Caffeine Is in Your Drink?

Values are rough averages and vary with the brand, strength, and cup size. Caffeinated drinks are not recommended for young children.

Drink	Serving	Approximate caffeine
Masala chai	1 cup (about 150 ml)	About 20–40 mg
Green tea	1 cup (about 150 ml)	About 20–30 mg
Instant coffee	1 cup (about 150 ml)	About 50–70 mg
South Indian filter coffee	1 tumbler (about 150 ml)	About 70–120 mg
Cola	1 bottle (about 300 ml)	About 25–35 mg
Energy drink	1 can (250 ml)	Up to 75 mg (FSSAI limit 300 mg per litre)
Milk, lassi, buttermilk, coconut water	1 glass	None

Beverages Timeline Summary

Year / Era	Milestone
c. 1500–1000 BCE	Rigveda praises milk, curd, and ghee
c. 300 BCE–200 CE	Arthashastra liquor rules; Ayurveda praises buttermilk
1500s	Mughal ice-cooled sherbets; cashew reaches Goa
1600s	Baba Budan coffee legend, Chikmagalur
1820s	Kasauli brewery
1823	Wild Assam tea identified
1839	First Assam tea auctioned in London
1841	Tea planted in Darjeeling
1906	Rooh Afza created
1936	First India Coffee House, Bombay
1942	Coffee Board set up
1946	Kaira dairy cooperative, Anand
1955	Amul brand launched
1965	NDDB; Bisleri bottled water
1970	Operation Flood begins
1971	Limca
1974	Mother Dairy milk booths
1977	Coca-Cola leaves; Thums Up launched
1985	Frooti in Tetra Pak
1990	Pepsi enters India
1993	Coca-Cola returns
1996	First Café Coffee Day
1998	India becomes the largest milk producer
2000	Sula’s first wines; Barista opens
2012	Chaayos; Tata Starbucks
2017	GST on aerated drinks
2020	First International Tea Day
2023	Campa Cola relaunched
Future	Low-sugar, plant-based, and millet drinks

Timeline understanding Health and nutrition Label reading Regional culture

Interview a grandparent about what they drank as children in summer and winter, and who supplied their milk.
Make a timeline poster: lassi and sherbet, Assam tea (1823), Amul (1946), Thums Up (1977), cafés (1996), and energy drinks (2010s).
Make buttermilk or lassi at home with an adult and write down the recipe your family uses.
Read the labels of five packaged drinks and list the sugar, caffeine, and serving size of each.
Calculate how many teaspoons of sugar are in a 300 ml soft drink (one teaspoon is about 4 grams).
Draw a map of India marking one traditional drink from each region.
Find out how tea travels from a garden in Assam or Darjeeling to your cup.
Compare the price of a cup of chai at a roadside stall and at a café, and discuss why they differ.
Survey your class: how many drink milk, chai, coffee, soft drinks, or energy drinks each day?
Debate: “Energy drinks should not be sold to anyone under 18.”

Continue exploring

India’s drinks changed with the dairy revolution, fruit and horticulture, railway chai, and farm markets. Explore these connected timelines next.

White Revolution timeline Golden Revolution timeline Railway timeline Agriculture marketing timeline More India timelines All timelines

Moments Through Visual Stories

Click any panel to expand and explore the visual mood.

India’s beverages journey in pictures — churning buttermilk, plucking Assam tea, the 1950s doodhwala, railway chai and bottled cool drinks, 2000s café cold coffee, regional drinks, 2020s energy drinks, and then versus now.

Lassi & Chaas

Churned at home

Tea Gardens

Two leaves and a bud

Doodhwala

Milk at the door at dawn

Railway Chai

Kulhads and cool drinks

Café Culture

Cold coffee with friends

Regional Drinks

Sol kadhi to filter coffee

Energy Drinks

Cans and cold brew

Then vs Now

Kulhad to café cup

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Jump to any other daily life timeline on WorldTimelineHub.

Disclaimer: This content is AI-generated for educational purposes and may contain errors or outdated details. For correct and authoritative information, please refer to official and reliable sources such as government publications, manufacturers, museums, and academic references.

Beverages Timeline of India: Milk & Lassi → Chai & Coffee → Cool Drinks → Wine → Energy Drinks

Why the Beverages Story Matters

India’s beverages journey in one view

Indian Beverages Then vs Now at a Glance

Milk, Lassi, Sherbet & Toddy

Technology

Features

Tea Gardens, Coffee Houses & Soda

Technology

Features

Doodhwala, Amul & the First Colas

Technology

Features

Chai Stalls, Thums Up & Frooti

Technology

Features

Global Colas, Cafés & Indian Wine

Technology

Features

Energy Drinks, Chai Cafés & Healthy Sips

Technology

Features

Traditional Drinks from Across India

Famous Indian Drink Brands and Cafés

How Much Caffeine Is in Your Drink?

Beverages Timeline Summary

Test Your Knowledge

Students Tasks

Continue exploring

Moments Through Visual Stories

Explore all daily life timelines