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5 min
08/10/2025
Welcome to the ‘The Great Indian Mithai Awards (GIMA)’ OF 2025! From the veteran ‘mega’ motichoor laddu in its signature crown-like ‘sawari’ to the sleek kaju katlis wrapped in a silver cape (varak), it’s hard to pick sides, but like every year, one must do the honours and crown the top 10. So, what’s in store for this year?
While there isn’t a single official ranking for the top Diwali mithais for any particular year, a clear picture does emerge when you look across trusted sources. It’s what you see in mithai boxes year after year, promoted by quick-commerce platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, and Zepto. Consuming sweets throughout the day is an unofficial rule of Diwali. In the middle of lighting the diyas, drawing rangoli, and exchanging gifts, you break into a box, especially after Lakshmi Puja. And as food trends evolve, so do the mithais, with new ingredients, formats, and stories.
Kaju Katli remains a perennial favourite because of its luxurious, silky texture and premium ingredient – cashews. Ranked #4 in TasteAtlas’s list of ‘Best Desserts in India’, its roots lie in Mughal‑era adaptations of Persian cooking. Persians loved adding fruit and nuts to their food, but local innovations made cashew versions popular in India. It started surging in popularity in recent years and has continuously featured in Diwali special collections and gift boxes, keeping it at the top of festive sweet menus.
Soft, syrupy, and indulgent, gulab jamun’s universal appeal comes from its warm, melt‑in‑mouth feel and floral sugar syrup. Historical food writers trace it back to the Persian ‘luqmat al‑qadi’, adapted in Mughal kitchens. It features in nearly every festival sweet list and remains a must‑have in Diwali assortments, often garnished with pistachios or saffron to elevate its look and flavour.
Besan laddu is loved for its earthy, nutty flavour and homely charm. You cannot go wrong with this one, and it’s so easy to make that many Indian households make it from scratch. It uses simple pantry staples – roasted gram flour, ghee, sugar, and cardamom. Though it might not feature in global dessert rankings, it resonates strongly in regional and traditional sweets lists, especially in North India during festivals.
Made from ultra-fine boondi pearls soaked in syrup and shaped into ball form, motichoor laddu wins over fans via its striking colour, greasy but sweet mouthfeel, and layered flavour. It also has a strong association with festive occasions and is commonly offered as prasad across temples in India. It’s so common in celebrations that in some parts of India, enormous laddus (weighing multiple kgs) are made for communal sharing.
Soan papdi is a staple on this list for a reason. Its airy and flaky texture is its hallmark, and its thin sugar-thread-style layers that dissolve in the mouth can be a delight for many. Its lineage is sometimes linked to the Turkish spun-sugar sweet ‘pismaniye’. Modern production has made it easy to package in boxes, increasing its reach during Diwali. It also appears frequently in ‘most popular sweets’ roundups and is a regifting favourite (some mockingly call it ‘regift papdi’).
It’s a breeze to make and a dream to bite into, all courtesy of what goes into it – fresh or desiccated coconut mixed with condensed milk or jaggery, sometimes spiced with a bit of cardamom or rolled in nuts. Its comforting flavour and chewiness make it a standout in southern and coastal Indian festive platters. Its simplicity and shelf stability (compared to syrup-soaked sweets) give it an edge in packed sweet assortments.
This carrot-based pudding is cooked slowly in milk, sugar, and ghee until richly caramelised. Often consumed in the colder months, when carrots are in season, it surges in popularity during the autumnal time when Diwali tends to fall, late in the year. It’s sometimes sprinkled with nuts and saffron for extra festivity. While it may not top ‘top sweets’ lists, sites like Taste of Home list it among the more popular Diwali treats.
It does not get any more generic than this sweet brick, a slab of nuts and jaggery. These sweets are valued for their crunch and long shelf life. Chikki binds nuts (like peanuts, sesame, cashew) with sugar or jaggery syrup. The best part about chikkis is that you can make them at home. Because they don’t need added syrup (whatever is used sets as a binder) or much moisture, they last longer and travel better, perfect for gifting.
Also known as karanji, gujiya is a fried crescent pastry stuffed with khoya, semolina, coconut, or nuts and a sweet glazed outside. It is strongly tied to Holi, but also quite popular during Diwali in some regions (mostly North India). Some newer variants use chocolate, nuts, or even bake it to make it ‘healthier’, to adapt to evolving tastes. Historically, variants of gujiya are traced to old Jain sweet ‘anse’, and in cities such as Vrindavan, it has been offered as temple prasad over centuries.
This Rajasthani disc-shaped, honeycomb-structured dessert is made by pouring batter into hot ghee and then soaking it in syrup. Ghevar is quite indulgent and tied to monsoon festivals like Teej and Raksha Bandhan, but appears in Diwali menus in Rajasthan and adjacent regions. Some believe ghevar was once regarded as a ‘revival sweet’ during damp monsoons because of its calorific nature. Its dramatic shape and texture make it a showstopper.
No Diwali celebration is complete without a generous spread of mithai. While preferences evolve and trends shift, from nostalgic classics to healthier or more innovative variants, some sweets are evergreen. These sweets consistently find their way into boxes, homes, and hearts during the festival of lights.
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