Mahua Laddoo

Round sweets made from dried mahua (Madhuca longifolia) flowers — the forest tree whose creamy, honey-scented petals fall in spring and are collected, sun-dried, and stored. The dried flowers are roasted and mixed with jaggery, black sesame, and sometimes rice flour, then shaped into balls. The flavour is distinctive: sweet, floral, slightly fermented, with a depth found in no cultivated fruit or sugar.