Guess which Calcuttan is being treated like royalty this winter in the most expensive house on Billionaire’s Row in London: His Delectable Highness, the Nolen Gurer Sandesh.

Over the past week, city boy Lakshmi Narayan Mittal’s marbled mansion at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens has received three consignments of the choicest sweets prepared with the season’s first jaggery at Bhowanipore’s 2 Padmapukur Road, better known as Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick.

That adds up to over 120kg of mouth-watering makha sandesh, sealed, shipped and delivered at the doorstep of Taj Mittal in airtight, one-kilo containers packed into corrugated paper cartons.

Mittal’s wife Usha had personally called up the Mullicks earlier this month to place an order for sweets that would rekindle the scent and flavour of the city where she and her husband had first met.

“She was disappointed to know that we would not be able to send jolbhora sandesh, which has a dollop of the liquid nolen gur wobbling in the middle, without the sweets crumbling. But she liked what we offered as an alternative,” said a member of the sandesh store staff.

The makha sandesh was specially prepared with norom paak (soft kneading) and the best of nolen gur.

“When the sandesh was ready, we used nolen gur again as a topping,” Sudip Mullick of Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick told Metro.

The landmark sweet stop, which has been in existence since 1885, used “very high quality of nolen gur” for the Mittal order. According to Sudip Mullick, the mid-December chill was just right for the production of nolen gur, which comes from date palm.

Each of the three consignments — 84kg, 24kg and 15kg — was marked “fragile” and the cartons handed over to Mittal’s staff, who carried them to Mumbai en route to London.

It isn’t known whether the sweets were meant for a special family occasion or for high-flier guests at one of Mittal’s parties. But one thing Sudip Mullick is sure of is that they would have melted the man of steel.

“The only thing we were worried about was the shipping. Although makha sandesh isn’t likely to break into pieces, it must be handled carefully. Too much shaking can affect the taste of the sweet,” he said.

The Mittals are, of course, not the only ones to have a sweet tooth for nolen gur.

A city-based industrialist recently placed a large order with Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick for kanchagolla and sandesh made with nolen gur, albeit without pistachio. He also asked for a cake to be made with nolen gur, topped with a sprinkling of fruit.

Several other sweet shops in town have been flooded with holiday and wedding-season orders from Mumbai and Delhi, though they admit the Mittal order is the nolen gur on the winter cake.

“It could open new doors for us abroad,” said the owner of a sweet shop.

Do you think nolen gurer sandesh has the potential to become a global favourite? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com