Three in the morning in a village in South 24 Parganas, and a man is climbing a date palm with a rope round his waist and a clay pot on his back. The pot he hung there last evening is heavy now with sap, cold and faintly cloudy. He swaps it for an empty one and climbs down to the next tree.
By the time the sun is up, the sap from a hundred trees will be bubbling in a wide iron pan over a wood fire, turning from water to amber. That is nolen gur, and it has a deadline: if the sap warms up before it is boiled, it starts to ferment.
Nolen gur is jaggery made from the sap of the date palm (khejur), boiled down over a fire. It is not the same as the ordinary jaggery sold all year, which is made from sugarcane. It is made only in winter, mostly in Nadia, the two 24 Parganas and the western districts in West Bengal, and in Jessore and Faridpur across the border in Bangladesh, and for about three months it flavours almost every sweet in Bengal.
Why only in winter?
Date palms in Bengal give their best sap in the cold months, roughly December to February. Tapping starts as the nights turn cool, and the first pots of the new season’s gur usually reach the market in the middle of December. Growers and researchers say the sap needs night-time temperatures of around 14 °C or lower to flow well. A warm winter means less sap and thinner flavour.
Cold matters at the other end too. Fresh sap is full of sugar and wild yeast. Left in a warm pot, it ferments within hours into tari, palm toddy. That is why sap is collected through the night and in the small hours, and boiled the same morning.
How it is made
The cut
In the afternoon a tapper, a shiuli (also called gachhi), climbs the palm and shaves a thin, fresh slice from the trunk just below the crown. A small spout of bamboo or reed guides the sap into a clay pot hung beneath it. A cut too shallow gives little sap; too deep can harm the tree.
The night
Sap drips into the pot through the cold night. In Jaynagar tappers collect from about 3 am to 8 am. At the peak of the season a good tree fills the pot with several litres a night.
The boil
The sap is strained and boiled in a wide, shallow pan over a wood fire, stirred and skimmed for hours. It takes several litres of sap for each litre of gur. One account from Jaynagar puts it at about seven.
Liquid or solid
Taken off the fire while still pourable, it becomes runny jhola gur. Boiled longer, beaten and poured into moulds, it sets into patali, the round cakes sold in stacks at every winter market.
| Name | What it is | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Nolen gur | The new season’s gur. Usually means the first, finest liquid gur | Sandesh, rosogolla, payesh, eating with bread or rice |
| Jhola gur | Runny liquid gur | Payesh, pithe, drizzling |
| Patali gur | Solid cakes set in moulds | Keeping longer, grating into sweets, eating as it is |
A very old sweet
Date palm sugar has a long history in Bengal. The historian Niharranjan Ray, in Bangalir Itihas, points to a mention of it in the Saduktikarnamrita, the anthology of Sanskrit verse compiled in Bengal by Sridharadasa around the year 1205. In the nineteenth century date sugar became an industry: villages around Jessore had more than a hundred small factories refining it, and the region still says “Jashorer jash, khejurer rosh”: Jessore’s fame is its date sap.
What to eat it in
Nolen gurer sandesh
নলেন গুড়ের সন্দেশ
Chhana cooked with nolen gur instead of sugar, which turns it a soft brown and gives it a smoky caramel taste. Every Kolkata sweet shop has its own version from mid-December, and loyalties run deep.
Nolen gurer rosogolla
নলেন গুড়ের রসগোল্লা
Rosogolla soaked in a gur syrup instead of a sugar one: brown, softer-tasting and, for many Bengalis, the real sign that winter has arrived.
Joynagar moa
জয়নগরের মোয়া
Balls of kanakchur khoi, popped rice from a fragrant local paddy, bound with nolen gur, with khoya, ghee, cardamom and a raisin or two. Both main ingredients are winter-only, so real moa is a November-to-January thing. Joynagar moa received a Geographical Indication tag in 2015. The sweet-makers of Jaynagar and neighbouring Baharu both claim it; one popular account credits a moa-seller called Ashutosh Das with the nolen gur version in 1904.
Pithe and payesh
পিঠে-পায়েস
On Poush Sankranti in mid-January, Bengali kitchens make pithe: patishapta crêpes rolled round coconut and gur, puli dumplings, gokul pithe, and gur payesh, rice cooked slowly in milk and sweetened with jhola gur once it is off the heat so the milk does not split.
Buying good nolen gur
Demand has outrun supply. Tappers are getting older and fewer: one report from Jaynagar in 2021 counted about 200 shiulis where there had been 800 five years earlier. Cyclone Amphan in 2020 felled many palms, and warmer winters cut the yield. Some makers stretch the gur with sugar syrup. There is no kitchen test that proves gur is pure, but a few things help:
- Buy in season. “Fresh” nolen gur in October or in June is last season’s, or not nolen at all.
- Trust your nose. Good gur smells smoky and caramel-like, a little like wood fire. A flat, plain-sugar sweetness is a warning sign.
- Look at the patali. Very pale, very hard, glassy cakes that taste mostly of sugar have often been cut with it.
- Know who made it. A seller who can name the village and the maker is a better bet than an unlabelled jar.
- Store it cold. Jhola gur can ferment at room temperature; keep it in the fridge and use a clean, dry spoon. Patali keeps longer in an airtight tin.
Questions people ask
What is nolen gur made of?
The sap of the date palm (khejur), boiled down over a fire until it thickens. It is different from sugarcane jaggery.
When is nolen gur available?
From about mid-December to February, when cold nights make the date palms give sap. Sweets made with it appear in Kolkata shops from December and are at their best in January.
What is the difference between nolen, jhola and patali gur?
Jhola is runny liquid gur; patali is gur boiled longer and set in moulds. Nolen means the new season’s gur, and usually refers to the first, finest liquid gur.
Is nolen gur healthier than sugar?
Only slightly. It carries small amounts of minerals that refined sugar does not, but it is still mostly sugar, and it affects blood sugar much the same way. People with diabetes should treat it like sugar.
Is it safe to drink fresh khejur rosh?
Not raw. Bats can contaminate the sap with Nipah virus, and the WHO advises boiling freshly collected date palm juice. Gur, which is boiled for hours, does not carry this risk.