Warm, creamy, a touch sweet, and a touch spicy. Hints of cardamom, cinnamon, peppermint, and ginger, all blended into a beautiful golden color—like a field of sunflowers, or even the sun—and poured into your favorite mug. Doesn't this sound like a delightful way to start your day?
Meet Banyan's Turmeric Milk. Also called haldi doodh and golden milk, this tasty herbal drink offers tender loving care for grownups and children alike. A traditional Indian staple, golden milk has quickly been making a name for itself in the West, promoting its health benefits and standing in as a coffee alternative.
With turmeric, ashwagandha, and other spices and herbs, Turmeric Milk has remained a customer favorite among our Ayurvedic teas and drinks and is the consummate cozy, guilt-free treat—for any time of the day!
Benefits of Turmeric Milk
Turmeric is well known to have a host of health benefits:
- Specifically, it supports the digestive, circulatory, and respiratory systems.
- As a bitter herb, it is considered cleansing, purifying, and tonifying.
- With these same qualities, it is also excellent support for the immune system.
This is great news for a warm cup of golden milk because it makes for an easy, convenient, and delicious way to get your daily dose of turmeric, along with the acclaimed adaptogen ashwagandha.
With all the golden milk mixes on the market, we think what makes our blend special is a hearty dose of ashwagandha. Paired with turmeric, these two make a mighty duo.
As an adaptogen and a rasayana, ashwagandha has a rejuvenating and calming influence on the nervous system. For this reason, golden milk can be a welcome part of a bedtime routine, nourishing the body to help support restful and restorative sleep.
Peppermint, ginger, and cardamom balance this formula by adding not only their distinctive flavors but also their warming and mildly stimulating properties to further assist digestion, assimilation, and healthy circulation. (Cardamom is also said to neutralize milk's mucous forming properties.) Cinnamon and a touch of black pepper support this process as well.
When to Enjoy Turmeric Milk
One way we can bring balance to full and busy lives is simply to slow down. For some, taking quiet time in the morning prepares them for the day ahead. And for others, taking a short timeout in the afternoon helps to reinvigorate their energy as they head into the evening. Still others savor their bedtime routine.
Golden milk is an excellent option for any time of the day. And because it is nourishing rather than depleting, it is a superior alternative to caffeine or sugar, and the cravings we often succumb to as the day wears on.
Banyan's Turmeric Milk is lightly sweetened with dates, which are themselves grounding, nourishing, and building, and, like milk, considered a rasayana.
Ways to Enjoy Turmeric Milk
In the Ayurvedic tradition, milk is treated as a sattvic food, a rasayana, and an anupan. Because Ayurveda is essentially a qualitative system, it's important to consider the energetics, or the qualities, of milk. Sattvic foods are said to promote the quality of sattva, or equilibrium. Its qualities are sweet, heavy, and building, or anabolic.
- Turmeric milk is just as delicious and equally beneficial made with the milk of your choice—a nut milk, coconut milk, or even oat or hemp milk lend their own special qualities, and you may want to experiment to see which you prefer best.
- You may also experiment with adding other herbs to your golden cup—extra cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, or even some shatavari to further support a hearty immune system (and reproductive system too!).
- And lastly, for those with more of a sweet tooth, adding a little honey or maple syrup is a good healthy option.
Coming Back to Balance
Balance is a central theme in Ayurveda. Just as our body is always working to maintain homeostasis, outwardly we can work with various lifestyle shifts and practices to bring balance to our mental and emotional states.
Wellness can be supported and enhanced in a multitude of ways, and one way, especially at this time of year when the days draw shorter and colder, is to take the time to start or end your day snuggled up with a warm cup of something good for you.
Let our Turmeric Milk fortify you and support you in enhancing the quality of your life, one beautiful cup at a time.
