The History of Joynagarer Moa: A Farmer, Two Friends, and a Famous Indian Dessert

Thanks to Bengali grandmas who have been making sweets for their successors, especially their grandchildren for several decades, Moa is a snacky ball of sweet crunchy puffed rice. Joynagarer Mua employs a similar tactic and shapes a special kind of fragrant rice that is popped and mixed with a special sticky liquid to make round cohesive balls that are a delicious special sweet. This is only available during winter as one of the ingredients is only during that time.

What makes up Joynagarer Moa?

Kanakchur is a special kind of fragrant rice grain, for the uninitiated, something like basmati which has a beautiful aroma, that is grown in the South 24 Parganas of West Bengal. This fragrant rice is roasted in a kadhai to pop that creates “khoi” or a kind of popped rice (the white little rice-like things thrown by the bride at Bengali weddings and also during the journey of the dead to the crematorium) that forms the base of the sweet.

The binder that holds the khoi together is nolen gur, or the liquid gold that is harvested from the date palm trees, very painstakingly, by date palm tappers during the onset of winter. This is why this sweet is exclusive to winter and in the yesteryears, Pheriwalas would “hak” (a kind of catchy way to announce what they were selling for people in earshot to hear) and roam the streets selling this winter delicacy, but with time they were lost to time and the bustle of the city.

The Kanakchur Khoi, liquid jaggery (nolen gur) and ghee are combined to make the moa and to raise the flavor intensity, cardamoms are added and the wet moas. These are coated with poppy seeds or “suji” and often nuts like cashews and pistachios are added to the moa. A long raisin is often pressed to the surface as garnish.

The Origin of the Winter Sweet

The origin of this sweet dates back to at least the early 1900s to a farmer in Baharu, who mixed this “khoi” made from the Kanakchur paddy grains with nolen gur to create the simpler version of the moa. Moa as mentioned earlier has been eaten as a snack for a long time and this farmer was probably trying to make something interesting. This all started in a little town that was right next to the town Jaynagar Majilpur, after which the moa earned its name.

In fact, he made these moa and fed them to the local zamindar, who was so pleased with the simple snacky sweet, that he recommended that the farmer sell them at the local market. Bengalis love their sweet so it's no wonder that word of this delicious moa got around and this was just the beginning of the moa.

It was not long before two friends got to know about the tale of the Baharu farmer and decided to use the same recipe to sell moa. These two friends were Nityagopal Sarkar (Buchki), who with his friend Purna Chandra Ghosh (Purna) started selling the moa in the local winter market. The moa earned the name Buchki’s moa and with time was formally rebranded as Joynagarer moa. This was the tale in around 1920 when they decided to set up shop near the Jaynagar Majilpur railway station. This sweetmeat shop was called Sri Krishna Mistanna Bhandar and the shop still exists and is run by the descendants of Ghosh’s family, his granddaughter to be exact. The two friend’s pictures still hang in this old shop even today.

As for the Baharu, where the moa is being sold, a shop called Shyamsundar Sweets stands which is one of the oldest shops in the town which still sells the authentic Joynagarer moa. It wasn't until 1978 that Gopal Chandra Ghosh (likely Purna’s son) took the shop under his wing and today his two sons run the ages-old shop. It is said this shop still sells at least 10,000 moas every single day. During the busy winter months, they hire local laborers to help with the massive demand.

The Moa Today

The Moa thrives in the winter season and today given the popularity of the sweet, it has branched out to the capital Kolkata where artificial flavoring agents and additives are added to replicate the flavor and taste of the beloved slightly soggy mishti.

With time the shelf life of these moa also started being extended with the advent of tech and refrigeration becoming more affordable. Plain refrigeration dries up the moa and makes it taste absolutely meh and plain, but this changed when Maa Kali Sweets, another local shop in Joynagar introduced vacuum sealing for the moas. This keeps them good for at least 2 weeks if not less. The famed sweet today also boasts a GI tag and remains a must-try if you are headed to Bengal for a visit.