chennai's candy land

Old Washermanpet is the hotspot for hard candies, its many by-lanes housing dozens of units and wholesale confectionery stores that supply to the whole country

Old Washermanpet

sweets manufacturing companies

for coconut, sesame, and groundnut barfis, hard candy, kamarkattu (made by boiling coconut scrapings and jaggery syrup) thaen mittai , pulippu mittai, and the unusual ‘cone ice’, Solaiappan Street, Telugu Chetty Street, and Nallappa Vathiyar Street, make up the city’s candy hotspot.

“There are over 40 wholesale sweet shops on this stretch alone,” says M Sathish, whose father owns Maruthi Sweets on Telugu Chetty Street. Apart from the manufacturing units, the area houses shops that stock candies, jellies, and chocolates. At Maruthi, there are racks and racks of bottles and containers of candies. They also stock murukkus and Mysore pak. “We source the barfis from local manufactures and buy the chocolate-based items from places such as Hyderabad, Indore, and Delhi,” says the 32-year-old.

Thangakili Sweets & PTD Confectionery, for instance, is famous for its barfi and hard candy,” he explains. Located on Narayanappan Naicken Street, Thangakili makes groundnut barfi , Mysore pak , and orange-flavoured candy

‘Cone ice’ is Anbazhagan’s speciality — it consists of hardened sugar cream on a cone. “It’s made of sugar and flavouring essence,” he says. Anbazhagan is well-known for his sweet — Kaviya Shree Sweets on Solaiappan Street is the only other company making the kind

 Today, a piece costs Rs. 5. “When I started making it, I sold one for 25p.”

According to G Balakrishnan of Udhayam Thaen Mittai, Hyderabad is the hub for wafers and chocolates, while Mumbai is where jellies come from. Chennai produces most of Tamil Nadu’s boiled candies. “Old Washermanpet has two manufacturing units for candies,” he explains. These also make lollipops, priced at Rs. 1 and Rs. 2. Apart from these, the area also produces pickles and corn-based snacks.

The most delicious of all candies is perhaps the orange mittai . Wait, it’s thethaen mittai . No, it’s the barfis that are more delicious. But then, ‘cone ice’, wins hands down for the illusion it represents — of ice cream that never melts.