Ask anyone in Greater Noida where to find the city's best sweets and one name comes up first, Navi Kalakand. What began in 2010 as a small rented shop with just one kadhai has grown into a business so well known that customers now travel not just from across Delhi-NCR but from abroad to taste, and carry home, its famous kalakand.
A single kadhai and 12 litres of milk
Shop operator Rahul Singh Bisoya says his father laid the foundation of Navi Kalakand back in 2010. The shop was rented at the time, and the sweets were prepared using just 12 litres of milk a day. Footfall was modest in the early years, but the purity and taste of the sweets slowly won people's trust. As word spread, the customer base kept growing, and today, some 16 years on, the shop counts among the oldest and most talked-about sweet shops in Greater Noida. Despite limited resources in those early days, the family never compromised on the quality of the sweets, and that is what allowed the shop's reputation to steadily build.
From a rented shop to owning the premises
Bisoya says the family recently opened a brand new shop of its own, right across from the old rented premises. The business now runs entirely out of this new, self-owned shop. He credits the shift to years of hard work by his family and the trust customers have placed in them, calling the move from a rented shop to owned premises a major milestone for the family.
The shop's biggest calling card is the very sweet it is named after, kalakand, which remains its best-selling item. During the month of Sawan and around festivals like Raksha Bandhan, ghevar also sells particularly well. Customers say it is the taste and consistent quality of the sweets that keeps pulling them back to the shop again and again.
Pure buffalo milk, and less sugar than the competition
Beyond taste, the shop places a heavy emphasis on purity. Operators say the sugar content in their sweets is kept lower than at most other shops, and no artificial additives or adulteration go into the mix. Every sweet is made purely from buffalo milk. Notably, the same milkman has been supplying milk to the shop regularly for the past 10 years, a continuity that has helped keep the taste and quality consistent over time. According to the operators, it is this very consistency that reassures customers the sweets will taste the same every single time they visit.
Gas shortages brought back the wood-fired stove
Bisoya explains that after facing difficulties in getting gas cylinders, the shop shifted most of its sweet-making to a wood fire. He believes sweets cooked slowly over a wood flame taste even better. The shop currently uses around 25 to 30 cans of milk every single day, a figure that reflects just how much the business has expanded.
Search it on Google, and it gets delivered home
Navi Kalakand has also moved with the times by embracing online ordering. The shop offers home delivery, and customers can simply search Navi Kalakand on Google to get in touch directly. People across various parts of Delhi-NCR place orders over the phone or online, share their address and contact number, and have the sweets delivered straight to their doorstep. This facility has also brought in customers who, because of distance, previously could not make it to the shop in person.
A reputation that now crosses borders
According to the shop owner, Navi Kalakand's popularity has spread well beyond India's borders. Several visitors from abroad make it a point to stop by specifically to buy the kalakand, while people heading overseas often like to carry the shop's sweets along with them. Positive reviews from customers, both Indian and foreign, on Google speak to this growing recognition. A journey that started nearly a decade and a half ago with a single kadhai and 12 litres of milk has today become a part of Greater Noida's identity. Pure milk, less sugar, traditional taste and years of customer trust, these four things together have made Navi Kalakand one of the city's most talked-about sweet shops.
What customers are saying
Kuldeep Nagar, who has been coming to the shop for the past 10 to 15 years, says its sweets are extremely famous and the quality has always stayed consistent. He points to the use of pure milk as the reason the taste stands apart, adding that customers travel long distances just to buy sweets here. Another regular, Vaibhav, says the sweets are excellent and that he visits almost every day. He notes that people come here to buy and eat sweets not just from within the country but from abroad as well. Customers agree that purity, traditional taste and a reputation built over years remain Navi Kalakand's biggest strengths, which is why the shop stays just as popular with people from Greater Noida and nearby areas as it does with visitors from far away.
