Why a kilo of kaju katli costs what it does

Kaju katli is the most expensive sweet on our counter, at ₹480 for 250 g, which works out to ₹1,920 a kilo. Customers often ask why it costs more than twice as much as laddoo. The answer is mostly the cashew.

A kilo of kaju katli needs about 650 g of cashews. We use whole W320 cashews from the processing units near Panruti, not broken pieces, because broken cashews have often been lying in the air and taste flat. At current prices they cost us around ₹950 to ₹1,050 a kilo, so the cashew alone is about ₹650 for every kilo of sweet. Sugar, a little ghee and cardamom add another ₹60.

Then the silver leaf. Each sheet of varq is beaten by hand, and a kilo of katli needs about 25 sheets, adding roughly ₹90. Some customers ask us to leave it off, which we happily do on order.

The making takes time. The cashews are soaked, ground to a fine paste without letting the oil separate, cooked with sugar syrup to the right point, kneaded by hand while warm, rolled thin and cut into diamonds. Three people spend about an hour on a 10 kg batch. Add packing, rent, gas and the share of wastage from edge pieces, and the cost of making a kilo comes to about ₹1,500 before GST. If you see kaju katli much cheaper than about ₹1,200 a kilo, it is worth asking what else has gone into it.