Mithai

Mithai is the general name for the traditional sweets of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the wider Indian subcontinent.

Mithai: An assortment of colorful Indian sweets arranged on a round tray: barfi squares with silver leaf, round laddus, syrupy gulab jamun and orange jalebi spirals
  • Chocolate, sugar and confectionery

Also called: South Asian sweets, Sweets from the Indian subcontinent, mitthai

The word covers a huge family of confections. Many are based on milk, either cooked down into a thick solid called khoa or curdled into fresh cheese called chhena. Others use gram flour, semolina, nuts, coconut or lentils, and many are soaked in or bound with sugar syrup and flavored with cardamom, saffron or rose water.

Well-known examples include barfi, laddu, gulab jamun, rosogolla and jalebi. Mithai is bought from specialist sweet shops and shared at festivals such as Diwali and Eid, at weddings and when celebrating good news. Some pieces are finished with edible silver leaf or chopped pistachios.

Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Overview of popular Indian flour confections, INFLIBNET Centre (UGC e-PG Pathshala)
  2. Indian Sweets: Introduction, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur