Here’s the world’s costliest mithai

Baulking at the sight of the Rs1200 per kilo dryfruit barfi? You ain’t seen nothing. The modestly named Prashant Corner of Thane (Mumbai) has made the most immodest sweet — the Suvrana (golden) mithai which costs a whopping Rs9000 rupees a kilo.And it’s all wiped out.

Only one batch of the premium sweet was made for the festive season—160 kilos of it, and its all gone, mostly consumed by the denizens of Mumbai’s sister city. What makes the mithai so eye-wateringly sweet on the pocket?

Like all things premium, it’s in the ingredients. There are organic Mamra almonds, which are native to Iran, and are superior to the usual California ones. Their cultivation is organic, so they yield more oil, are higher in fibre, flavour and protein.

They are recently being cultivated in Afghanistan and India too, but account for under five percent of the global production of almonds. Then there are only the best quality pistachios from Oman and Italy. The final flourish are the strands of pure Kashmiri saffron.

Their second-most expensive mithai clocks in at only Rs 2003 per kilo, according to Gaurav Kadam who mans the busy store. They are the Swiss Almond, Pista Beauty Cake and Apricot Millienium. Neither of these use sugar and rely on dry fruits for their sweetness.

The man behind the sweets is Prashant Sakpal, who started working at a convenience store as a 10-year-old. 

Today, Prashant Corner has four shops in Thane, an annual turnover of Rs 35-50 crore and employs 300 workers, and is a landmark in Thane. His festive season inventions have become something to look forward to on the suburb’s culinary calendar.

So who bought the Suvarna mithai? They’re not telling; and if we get a bite, we aren’t sharing.