Lonavala White Til Chikki

Lonavala White Til Chikki is white sesame cooked into jaggery and pressed into thin, brittle slabs, pale gold and quietly generous. It comes from the hill town every Mumbai to Pune traveller knows by its chikki shops, where picking up a box for the road is almost a rule. Each piece snaps cleanly, like the first winter chill, then melts into a slow, nutty warmth that stays long after. Keep it by the chai tin, break off a piece after lunch, or pack it for a long drive with a foggy window and nowhere to be.

Origin Story: Lonavala sits high in the Sahyadri ghats and spends much of the monsoon wrapped in mist, and chikki has long been its sweetest export. Sesame and jaggery go deeper into Maharashtra’s food culture too. At Makar Sankranti, families hand out til-gul and say “tilgul ghya, god god bola”: take this sweet and speak sweetly. White til chikki turns that same pairing into an everyday slab. Patang’s is made in Lonavala itself and pressed thin, the way the town likes it, so it tastes of the place it comes from.

Taste and Texture: A thin, glassy snap, then the toasty, almost buttery flavour of sesame against the deep caramel sweetness of jaggery. It’s crisp rather than jaw-breaking. Because the slab is so thin, it disappears much faster than you’d expect.