Mithai

Mithai is a broad category of traditional South Asian confections, commonly associated with India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, as well as with diaspora communities worldwide. The term covers a wide range of sweets, from milk-based desserts to flour- or grain-based confections, and often includes nuts, coconut, saffron, and aromatic spins such as cardamom or rose water. Many mithai are made with milk solids like khoya or paneer, while others rely on sugar syrups, jaggery, semolina, chickpea flour, or rice flour for binding and sweetness.

Common preparations include setting or molding milk-based fudges and pedas, frying items that are then soaked in syrup, and shaping or layering sweets such as barfi, kaju katli, besan laddu, motichoor laddu, rasgulla, and sandesh. Other popular varieties are jalebi, gulab jamun, kalakand, mysore pak, and various halwa preparations (carrot, semolina, moong dal, and more). The range often reflects regional traditions, with distinctive textures and flavors across North Indian, Bengali, Gujarati, Rajasthani, and South Indian communities.

Practically, mithai are central to festivals, weddings, and family celebrations, used as offerings, gifts, or social sweets shared with guests. They are widely available in specialty shops and markets, and have also spread through the Indian subcontinent and global Indian diaspora, where local adaptations and fusion sweets have emerged.