Dekas (Ten Spice)

The kitchen, in a bottle

Dekas is the drink that tastes most like where we came from. Ten spices, blended the way we blended them in our family Thai restaurant — not from a recipe card, but from memory, from habit, from the way it had always been done.

Cinnamon, cardamom, clove, star anise, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, fennel, coriander, and a touch of raw honey. And underneath it all, Reishi mushroom — the one our family turned to for calm.

Why ten spices

Because that is how many it takes. We tried fewer. It did not taste right. The balance comes from all of them together, the way a kitchen smells like all of its ingredients at once.

When to drink it

Slowly. Dekas is not a rush. It is a sit-down, take-a-breath, remember-where-you-came-from kind of drink. It is the one we are most proud of, because it is the most honest.