Jwar Ji Tikki~AlifBe~11

The 11 th letter/consonant of AlifBe series is  ج which is J in Roman Sindhi and ज in Devanagari.
J as in Jowar, Japan, Java etc.
This consonant belongs to third basic shape group. To know more about the 1st and second shape groups you can check this recap post!

My hunt for a Sindhi dish starting with Alphabet J led me to Johar/Jwar Ji tikki and when I was discussing it with Ma and Papa (MIL and FIL) I realised that it is indeed very unique. Not sure about the Zen X generation but Millennial Sindhi kids may nod in affirmative that the peppermint candy was one of those delicious, breath freshening, carminative, herbal candies that was actually fed by mothers and grandmothers to young and old.

The Jwar ji tikki also known as Phudney ji tikki was a ‘must have’ in every home back then. It is a part of the first chaato (a sweet fine powder mix ) that a newborn is given or the Faqi, a post natal powder mix given to the new mother.
Everyone from kids to elderly loved this mint candy and some people even confessed to me that when they were kids they would fake stomach ache just to eat this.

So What is Jwar/Johar ji tikki? What it is made of? What does the word Johar means? Is it a candy or medicine?  I had so many questions on my mind and though we (me, MIL, FIL and hubby dear) couldn’t find any answers then but that discussion made Papa (FIL) very nostalgic about  few things associated with Jwar Ji tikki which gradually led me to many valuable discoveries that I am surely going to share with you all in my upcoming posts, on Instagram and even on Facebook. So do join me there, if you haven’t, yet.

I need to thank my extended family who helped me in finding answers to many queries regarding Jwar ji tikki.
Thank you Prakash Uncle for connecting me with Dilip Uncle (of Kaka’s Jwar tikki fame) who explained the process of  making Jwar tikki. Thank you Renu Di and Varsha, for being so patient and for sharing so many details along with lovely memories of the forgotten delicacies (that I must share in upcoming posts) and of course thanks to my better half for helping me in my culinary and literary research and for everything else.

So what is Jwar Ji Tikki?

Jwar Ji tikki is basically a sweet menthol flavored hard sugar candy/ tablet, also known as peppermint Lozenges. It has nothing to do with jowar (sorghum) tikki 😉

Jwar Ji Tikki is made by boiling sugar to which glucose syrup and mint oil are added but there are many variations of the candy and hence varying ingredients like gelatin (derived from plants or animal collagen) fats /oil and even Magnesium Stearate may be present in different kinds of Mint candies.

Apart from sugar and Glucose (syrup) an important ingredient used in Jwar Ji tikki is Mentha.

Mentha:
Mentha (plant) is a genus of perennial herbs belonging to family Lamiaceae and there are around 25 species of these aromatic herbs and one of it is Peppermint.
Mentha oil  is derived from Mentha foliage i.e leaves, stems or even flowers of Peppermint (even spearmint/mint).
The foliage is collected and dumped in large tanks and the mix is compressed thoroughly. Steam is allowed to pass through the compressed foliage which drives along with it the oily fumes of mentha. This steam is then allowed to pass through a cooling chamber where it gets converted into liquid (water) form, carrying mentha, forming an emulsion which is collected in a container. The mentha  oil  floats on the surface of the  liquid and is then collected and stocked. The mentha or Menthol (organic compound made from mint oil) are then used in various medicine preparations, vapo rubs, toothpastes and mouth fresheners etc.

Some Interesting facts about Menthol:

* In ancient Greece, Menthol was used as room freshener. It was spread on the floor or in corners of rooms for that cool, fresh fragrance in the air.
* While in ancient era cloves were chewed to freshen the breath, in Medieval era, people started using mint as mouth fresheners.

* Mint candies were used not only as breath fresheners but also for its carminative properties.

Altoids, the mint candies, similar to Jwar Ji tikki were first created by a confectioner named William Smith, in London in l8th century. Those were originally made from a mix of Sugar, gum arabic, gelatin, glucose syrup and peppermint oil. However after a century (almost 100 years) Altoids became more popular in America than in Europe.

Coming to Jwar Ji tikki, this desi peppermint candy was and still is, a favorite of Sindhis.
Dilip Uncle told me that now mostly Menthol crystals are used to make Jwar Ji Tikki, instead of mint oil.

The crystals used, could be natural or synthetic. Natural Menthol crystals are made by freezing the essential oil extracted from mint plants. Upon freezing, the menthol crystals are separated from dementholized oil  with the help of  a centrifuge machine and are finally dried for a day or so. These Menthol crystals (previously known as peppermint camphor) are then used in candies or in products for Oral hygiene etc.
Synthetic Menthol crystals are produced by hydrogenation of thymol.

Why the name Jwar Ji Tikki ?
Ideally it should be pronounced as Johar or Jowhar Ji Tikki. Johar in Sindhi means essence/arq/essential oil etc. Menthol is known as Phudney Jo Johar (Phudna= mint in Sindhi). For such interesting translations you can refer the dictionary of Sindhyat.com

A detailed recipe (trade secret) of this Jwar Ji tikki is promised by few sources and if I do get it, I will share it with you all.

And as usual, I am sharing here a small video for those who wish to learn how to write in Arabic Sindhi script.