Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Soft drinks from India

Torani (Odia fermented rice-water drink)tanka torani

Torani is fermented rice water from Odisha, drunk as a cooling, sour drink in hot weather. The water from cooked rice is left at room temperature, usually overnight, while lactic acid bacteria sour it, and is then seasoned with curd, lemon, salt and spices. A standardised version from the ICAR Central Rice Research Institute ferments the rice water for 24 h.

Fully documentedSoft drinks24 h

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe ICAR-CRRI standardised method (Technology Bulletin 263); household torani is fermented overnight with no fixed amounts.
Rice (the aromatic Geetanjali variety in the standardised method)About 100 g of rice for nearly 2.25 L of finished drinkCooked by pressure cooking or in a pot; with pot cooking the excess water is drained and fresh potable water added before fermentation[crri263]
CurdAdded after fermentation[crri263]
Lemon juice, salt and spicesAdded after fermentation[crri263]
Starterspontaneous; curd is added after fermentation (the CRRI bulletin calls the curd a starter culture)

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Rice is cooked and its water is collected

Step 1 of 4
Cook rice and collect the rice water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: rice water.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

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

Torani is fermented rice water from Odisha, drunk as a cooling, sour drink in hot weather. The water from cooked rice is left at room temperature, usually overnight, while lactic acid bacteria sour it, and is then seasoned with curd, lemon, salt and spices. A standardised version from the ICAR Central Rice Research Institute ferments the rice water for 24 h. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, let the rice water ferment, takes 24 h (Priyadarsani S 2026). Lactic acid bacteria and Lactobacillus plantarum, L. casei and L. fermentum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[crri263]Let the rice water ferment
Temperatureup to 10 °CReported[crri263]Pack and chill
AciditypH 7.4 → 3.92Measured[crri263]Let the rice water ferment

What makes this one different

Torani ferments only the water from cooked rice, not the rice itself as in pakhala or panta bhat. In the CRRI method the rice water sours by itself first; curd (which the bulletin calls a starter culture), lemon juice, salt and spices go in afterwards.

Related ferments

Safety

In the standardised method the drink stayed microbiologically stable for 8–10 days in plastic cups below 10 °C; paper cups shortened this by 3–4 days.

History and sources

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

Fermented rice water called torani or tanka torani has long been drunk in Odisha in hot weather (CRRI Technology Bulletin 263, 2026). In July 2021 the Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges programme funded Manoja Kumar Das of the INCLEN Trust to determine the best dose of fermented rice water (pakhala/torani) for the nutrition and the gut and vaginal microbiomes of women of reproductive age in Odisha, using torani prepared in households and in the laboratory. In June 2025 a protocol was published for a hospital trial in Odisha using overnight-fermented rice water with xylitol (Pathi 2025). In February 2026 the Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack published its standardised method.

  1. [crri263] Priyadarsani S., Panneerselvam P., Sarkar S., Jena P.C. 2026, Development of probiotic fermented aromatic rice water beverage ("Rice Cool"), CRRI Technology Bulletin No. 263, ICAR–Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttackgov
  2. [pathi2025] Pathi B.K. et al. 2025, Prevention of Clostridium difficile infection among hospitalized elderly patients using Torani (fermented rice water) and xylitol mixture drink, study protocol of an open-label randomized controlled trial, Cureus 17:e85635paper
  3. [gcgh2021] Gates Foundation Global Grand Challenges, Impact of Traditional Fermented Rice-Water on Maternal Nutrition in Odisha, India (grant record for Manoja Kumar Das, INCLEN Trust International, funded 14 July 2021)other