Ask ten shops in Gujarat and Rajasthan what goes into mukhwas and you will get ten answers. It is not a product with a formula; it is a category — the thing a house keeps in a small tin by the door for after a meal.
The base
Almost always fennel — saunf — because it is the one thing everybody agrees on. From there it depends on the shop: dhana dal, sesame, coconut, dry rose petals, coriander seed, small supari, sugar-coated fennel, or a mix of all of them.
What makes one better than another
Three things, in order. How fresh the fennel is, because it loses its oil quickly and stale saunf tastes like paper. Whether the pieces are graded to the same size, because a mix full of dust settles to the bottom of the tin. And how much sugar is hiding in it — a lot of cheap mukhwas is mostly sugar coating with very little inside.
Ours
We make several. Madrasi saunf, green and white, for people who want it plain. Jaipuri and Satrangi for a mix with colour and crunch. Gulab supari for the rose. Roasted dhana dal for the ones who find fennel too sweet.
They are mixed in small lots and packed the week they are sold, because mukhwas is the one thing on our shelves that goes flat fastest and is hardest to notice going flat.
How to keep it
An airtight tin, out of the sun, and finish it inside a couple of months. Not the fridge — the damp takes the crunch out of it.
Written at the counter in Salumbar, where these questions get asked every week.
