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Soft drinks from Tamil Nadu, India

Koozh (fermented millet and rice porridge drink)கூழ்

Finger or pearl millet flour is made into a slurry with water and left overnight to sour. The slurry is then cooked with broken rice into a thick porridge that is fermented again overnight into kali. Kali is thinned with water and salt, and sometimes buttermilk, to make the drink.

Fully documentedSoft drinks27 h – 40 h

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo batch size is given. The proportions come from the process flow chart for street-vended koozh in Ilango and Antony 2014; the kali is thinned at 1 part kali to 6 parts water (w/v) for each serving.
Finger or pearl millet flour1 part by weight, with 1 part water (1:1 w/v)Made into a slurry with tap water by hand[ilango2014]
Broken rice (noyee)About 20 % of the millet weightCooked in excess water; the fermented millet slurry is stirred into it[ilango2014]
SaltMixed in with the water when the drink is made[ilango2014]
Buttermilk (diluted curd)The drink may be mixed further with it to a thin porridge consistency[ilango2014]

Total time across the recorded steps: 27 h – 40 h

Start
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shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeastsStarchSugarAlcoholCO₂

What changes: Millet flour and water sit overnight and begin to sour

Step 1 of 4
Mix millet flour with water and leave overnight
Time
12–16 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Moulds
L. fermentum

Output: sour millet slurry.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic acid bacteria and yeasts mediate the fermentation (street koozh)

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Finger or pearl millet flour is made into a slurry with water and left overnight to sour. The slurry is then cooked with broken rice into a thick porridge that is fermented again overnight into kali. Kali is thinned with water and salt, and sometimes buttermilk, to make the drink. Made in 4 steps over 27 h – 40 h. The longest step, ferment the porridge again overnight, takes 15–24 h (Ilango S 2014). Lactic acid bacteria and Limosilactobacillus fermentum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step15–24 hReported[ilango2014]Ferment the porridge again overnight
AciditypH 4.3–4.9Measured[ilango2014]Thin with water and salt

What makes this one different

Koozh is fermented twice, once as a raw millet slurry and again after cooking with broken rice, and is thinned with water (and sometimes buttermilk) only when served.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Kambu koozhPearl millet.
  • Kelvaragu (ragi) koozhFinger millet.

Safety

In a study of six street samples, pH was 4.3–4.9 and lactic bacteria dominated, but some samples had high counts of Clostridium, Salmonella and Shigella, which points to contamination after processing. Coliforms were in all six samples, and the authors say samples above pH 4.5 may allow spoilage or growth of pathogens. Koozh is usually drunk within about 12 h of preparation.

Hazards the sources name: Clostridium, Salmonella and Shigella (high counts in some street samples); Bacillus cereus, Enterobacteria and coliforms were also found.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Koozh is prepared in homes and offered in temples during special festivals (Ilango and Antony 2014). A 2026 ethnographic study of finger millet koozh from the Tiruchirappalli district describes it as a daily food of farmers and manual labourers and as culturally and religiously significant in South Indian traditions (Fathimaa et al. 2026, abstract).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [ilango2014] Ilango S., Antony U. 2014, Assessment of the microbiological quality of koozh, a fermented millet beverage, African Journal of Microbiology Research 8(3):308–312paper
  2. [fathimaa2026] Fathimaa A.Y., Tamil Malar S., Harine Sargunam J., Amritkumar P. 2026, Kelvaragu koozh, a traditional fermented finger millet beverage of south India with ethnographic and nutritional significance, Journal of Ethnic Foods 13:17 (abstract, as published in Crossref)paper
  3. [palaniswamy2016] Palaniswamy S.K., Govindaswamy V. 2016, In-vitro probiotic characteristics of feruloyl esterase and glutamate decarboxylase producing Lactobacillus spp. isolated from traditional fermented millet porridge (kambu koozh), LWT 68:208–216 (abstract)paper