Nolen Gur Sandesh, Kolkata

Nolen gur is the first date-palm jaggery of the season, tapped from the trees in winter and boiled down. It is available for about ten weeks, roughly December to February, and for those weeks the whole Bengali sweet trade changes over to it.

The colour goes brown, the flavour goes smoky and caramel, and Kolkata treats the arrival of it as an event.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy1844	56 Ramdulal Sarkar Street, Hatibagan	The sandesh shop by which others are judged. Heritage-listed by the city.
Nalin Chandra Das & Sons1841	College Street area	Possibly the oldest sweet shop in Kolkata.
Chittaranjan Mistanna Bhandar1900s	34B Shobhabazar Street	Over a century of doi, roshabesh and madhuporko.
Adi Haridas Modakc.1780	Shyambazar More	Among the oldest food shops in the city.
Sen Mahasay1935	Shyambazar and city-wide	Sandesh, and a serious nolen gur range in winter.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Bhim Chandra Nag1826	5 Nirmal Chandra Street, Bowbazar	Founded 1826; the ledikeni was invented here in 1858. The Cooke and Kelvey clock with Bengali numerals still hangs.
K.C. Das1868	Esplanade and city-wide	The family credited with the rosogolla, and the firm that canned it.
Putiram1920s	College Street	Sweets, kochuri and radhaballavi.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Balaram Mullick & Radharaman Mullick1885	Bhowanipore and city-wide	The most inventive of the old houses; baked rosogolla, chocolate sandesh, nolen gur.
Mouchak1950s	Rashbehari Avenue	A South Kolkata standard.
Hindusthan Sweets1946	Rashbehari and city-wide	Large and reliable, with a heavy festival trade.
Jadab Chandra Das1800s	Bhowanipore	An old Bhowanipore sweet house.

Worth knowing

• Only in winter, and only from a shop that makes its own.
• If it is available in June it is not made with nolen gur.

The other dishes

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