Most likely Ice Apple [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borassus_flabellifer

Thanks for linking this. I've had this fruit before, fond memories of a childhood visit to Mumbai in early 80s. It's known by the Marathi speakers as "targolay". Its taste can be roughly described as a mix between a slimey coconut flesh with a distinctive sweetness found maybe in litchi fruit, but not as intensely sweet. Some rumour that it is intoxicating after a certain quantity - not sure about this. But it's a taste sensation unlike anything I've ever experienced since. Recent visit to Mumbai (2016) in Dec yielded nothing as explained by a dismissive street hawker: "tadgolay won't be found in winter". Much disappointed!

Yep, most certainly. This is the first thing that came to my mind along with Watermelons and Wax apples [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygium_samarangense

Well, there are many summer drinks, depending on which region you are in. Some of them are:

Aam Panna, Bel ka Sharbat, JalJeera, Shikanji, Neera, Ragi ambli, Jigar Thanda, Nannari, Kokam Sharbat, Coconut water, Chaach/ButterMilk, Thandai, Roohafza,

and many more...

I thought the rest of the article was equally lousy.

Quoting Death Valley temperature as only “99F” to make a point that Delhi is really fricking hot at this time. Well, Death Valley currently isn’t at its peak temperature and the summer has barely begun. It’s also not experiencing a heat wave.

The whole article appears to be GPT’ed.

It was weird how they brought in a climate change quote from a normal Chennai resident. I would have expected an expert to be quoted on that. I have no idea whether she is right or wrong, this year has seen a lot of anomaly, including both the poles heating up by 30C at the same time[1], and the researchers just called it anomaly and did not blame it on climate change. Probably just that kind of year, although you can never be sure.

[1]https://phys.org/news/2022-03-hot-poles-antarctica-arctic-de...

As some other comments have mentioned, South Asia has this concept of hot and cold foods that basically map to one of the sides of the four humors[0]. This classification seeks to define what the reaction of the body is upon ingesting the food/drink and I've always somewhat associated it with foods that can be inflammatory (hot) vs more neutral refreshing drinks (cold). Interesting to see it mentioned on HN

[0]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Humorism.svg#/media/...

Nongu had this reputation in India 20 years ago. Probably the same statement. There was also a lot of “hot foods” / “cold foods” (not relating to temperature, I think milk was always a “cold food”) or something like that. At least I heard that from multiple people in Chennai / Madras.

Some common Indian "cool-drinks": - Sugarcane juice - Chhaanch (Butter milk) - Coconut water

Yup "nongu" as it is called in southern parts of India is commonly sought after in summer.

I also wonder what a “regular synthetic fruit” is?