Rewari, Gajak & Chikki: Winter Sweets from Chakwal

Ask for "rewari" in a Lahore bazaar in December and the shopkeeper will show you three different trays before you finish the sentence. Ask for "gajak" and he will point at a slab. Ask for "chikki" and he will hand you a peanut bar. To a visitor they all look like the same brown winter sweet. To a Punjabi home they are three different foods, for three different hours of the day — and buying the wrong one for the wrong occasion is the small mistake this guide exists to prevent.

This guide explains what rewari, gajak and chikki actually are, how Chakwal became the rewari town, which one to buy for evening chai and which one to carry as a gift, and what each costs today at Khan Dry Fruits — with the out-of-stock names named honestly, not hidden. If you want the walnut side of the same winter shelf, our kilao and reori guide covers those two sweets; this one stays with the til-and-gur family.

Rewari: Til and Gur, Rolled into Balls

Rewari is the oldest of the three and the simplest to describe: white sesame seeds (til) roasted until they smell nutty, mixed with melted gur (jaggery), and rolled — by hand, while the mix is still warm — into small round balls. The ball is the point. A rewari is one bite, or two: you eat it with chai, one ball at a time, and the tin lasts the whole week. The gur gives it a deep, almost smoky sweetness; the til gives it crunch and that sesame flavour that no other winter sweet has.

Chakwal owns rewari the way Multan owns sohan halwa. The town sits in the Salt Range, and its sweet-makers have been rolling rewari for generations — the most famous name is Pehlwan Rewari, the Chakwal original, whose 1kg pack is the gift every Chakwal family sends to relatives in Lahore and Karachi when winter starts. The name "Pehlwan" (wrestler) is not decoration: rewari was the wrestlers' winter food, dense and warming, eaten after the morning workout. A ball or two with milk was breakfast; a handful with chai was the evening.

There are two things to know before you buy rewari. First, the base is always til and gur — but the best rewari makers add a nut, and the nut changes the sweet completely. Peanut rewari is the everyday one: peanuts folded into the til-gur ball, crunchier and cheaper. Badam rewari is the premium one: almonds in the same ball, richer and smoother, the one you serve to guests. Second, rewari goes soft in damp weather. Keep the tin airtight, keep it cool and dry, and it stays crisp for weeks; leave it open in a Lahore winter, and it turns chewy in days.

Gajak: Til and Sugar, Pressed into a Slab

Gajak looks like rewari's cousin and is often confused with it, but the difference is in the sweetener and the shape. Where rewari uses gur, gajak uses sugar — white sugar, cooked to a hard crack and mixed with til, then pressed flat into a slab and cut into squares or diamonds while it sets. The result is lighter in colour, harder and more brittle than rewari, and less sticky on the fingers. It snaps; rewari yields.

The flavour difference is real. Gur gives rewari a dark, molasses note; sugar gives gajak a clean, pale sweetness that lets the sesame flavour stand out. People who find gur too heavy prefer gajak. People who grew up on gur call gajak the "city" version. Both are right — it is a matter of taste, not quality.

One honest note: gajak is not sold as a named product on the Khan Dry Fruits shop — neither the Shopify shop nor the Laravel shop lists a product called "gajak". That is why this guide describes it but does not cost it from the shop. If you want the til-and-gur family from the shop, buy rewari or chikki below; if your heart is set on a gajak slab, your local bazaar sweet-maker is the place for it, and the rewari prices below will tell you roughly what a til sweet should cost.

Chikki: Peanuts Set in Gur, as a Brittle

Chikki is the third sweet and the easiest to recognise: roasted peanuts set in a thin sheet of melted gur, cooled hard, and broken into bars. No til, or very little — the peanut is the star, and the gur is the glue. A good chikki snaps cleanly, shows whole peanuts in every bite, and is not so sweet that you cannot taste the peanut. A bad chikki is mostly gur, sticky, and dark.

Chikki is the sweet of the journey. It travels better than rewari — a bar in a pocket, a bar in a school bag, a bar in the car on the motorway to Islamabad. Children love it because it is a bar, not a ball; adults love it because it is the cheapest of the three per bite. It is also the sweet most often made at home: peanuts, gur, a greased plate, ten minutes. The shop version is for the weeks when nobody has ten minutes.

The shop also once sold chikki in a jar — 60 small pieces in a tin, Rs 750 — the gift version, for offices and dawats. That jar is currently out of stock, and so is the mixed dry fruit chikki (250g at Rs 800). The plain peanut chikki in 250g, 500g and 1kg packs is in stock, and that is the chikki to buy today.

Rewari vs Gajak vs Chikki: The Difference in One Table

The rule of thumb: if it is round and dark, it is rewari. If it is flat, pale and snaps, it is gajak. If you can see whole peanuts, it is chikki. If a shopkeeper hands you a ball and calls it gajak, smile and ask for the slab — the name matters because the sweetness, the keeping and the price are all different.

Chakwal and Pehlwan Rewari: The Heritage

Every Punjabi town has a sweet, but Chakwal's claim on rewari is the strongest in the province. The town's rewari-makers work in the old bazaar near the Salt Range road, roasting til in iron karahis and rolling the balls by hand — work that cannot be rushed, because gur sets fast and a slow hand makes a lopsided ball. The best makers are known by name, and Pehlwan Rewari is the best-known name of all: the Chakwal original, sold in 1kg packs, the gift that says "I went to Chakwal" better than any photograph.

Here is the honest part, and it matters more than the praise: Pehlwan Rewari 1kg (Rs 1,100) is currently out of stock on the shop — every variant, including the 500g pack at Rs 600. We are not going to pretend otherwise or link you to a buy button that fails. When it returns, it is the first choice for a Chakwal gift. Until then, the Chakwal Rewari sold under the shop's own Chakwal label — 250g at Rs 300 — is the in-stock Chakwal rewari, made in the same tradition, at less than a third of the price per 250g. Buy that one today, and check back for Pehlwan.

The heritage is not the brand name alone. It is the recipe: til roasted, not raw; gur, not sugar; rolled by hand, not machine-pressed. Any rewari that follows that recipe tastes of Chakwal, whatever the label says. The Chakwal Rewari on the shop follows it — and at Rs 300 for 250g, it is also the cheapest way into the tradition.

Which to Buy: For Chai, for Guests, for Gifting

For daily evening chai — Chakwal Rewari 250g, Rs 300. The cheapest, the most traditional, the one that belongs beside the cup. Two or three balls with chai is the portion; a 250g pack lasts a small family about a week of evenings. At Rs 300, it is the lowest-cost winter sweet on this list per day of chai.

For children and travel — Peanut Chikki 250g, Rs 650. Bars travel, balls do not. A bar in a lunchbox, a bar in a pocket, a bar broken in half for two children. The 250g pack is the trial size; the 500g pack at Rs 1,300 is the family size; the 1kg pack at Rs 2,600 is the one for the house that eats chikki every day. Note the price carefully: an earlier brief for this article listed chikki at Rs 450 for 250g — that was wrong. The live shop price, checked twice on 9 November, is Rs 650 for 250g, Rs 1,300 for 500g and Rs 2,600 for 1kg.

For guests — Badam Rewari 250g, Rs 800. Almonds change the sweet from everyday to guest-worthy. Serve it in a small bowl beside the chai, not in the packet. The 500g pack is Rs 1,600 and the 1kg pack Rs 3,000 — buy the 250g first, and scale up only if your guests ask for the name.

For gifting — Peanut Rewari 1kg, Rs 1,600, or Special Rewari 1kg, Rs 1,000. A kilo pack is a gift; a 250g pack is a taste. Peanut rewari at Rs 1,600 a kilo is the generous gift; Special Rewari at Rs 1,000 a kilo is the smart one — the same til-gur family, a full kilo, at the lowest per-kilo price on this list. (There is also a smaller Special Rewari listing at Rs 250 for 250g.) Wrap it in a tin, add a card, and it is a complete winter gift without a second item.

What not to buy today. Pehlwan Rewari (out of stock), the 60-piece Chikki Jar at Rs 750 (out of stock), Kaju Rewari 250g at Rs 1,000 (out of stock) and Mixed Dry Fruit Chikki 250g at Rs 800 (out of stock). If a seller offers you any of these at a different price, ask to see the stock first — the shop's own listings say they are not available, and this guide will not send you to a dead end.

The Costed List: What Is In Stock Today

Every price below is the shop's own live price on 9 November 2026. Only in-stock items are costed as buyable:

The starter set at Rs 2,150 — 300 + 400 + 650 + 800 — is the honest way to try the whole family: one 250g pack of each in-stock sweet. Taste them side by side with one pot of chai, decide which one your house finishes first, and buy that one by the kilo next time. The second listing of Peanut Rewari at Rs 380 for 250g is also in stock — a slightly cheaper twin of the Rs 400 listing, same sweet.

How to Eat and Store Them

Portion. Two or three rewari balls with chai, or one chikki bar — that is a serving. These are dense sweets: til, gur and peanuts carry a lot of energy in a small piece, and a handful is a meal's worth. Children get one bar, not three. Anyone watching sugar should ask their doctor — gur is still sugar, even when it comes from a Chakwal karahi.

Storage. Airtight tin, cool and dry, away from the kitchen steam. Rewari and chikki both keep for three to four weeks in winter if the tin stays shut; in damp weather, eat them within two weeks. Never store them in the fridge — the cold makes gur sweat when the tin comes back out, and the sweets turn sticky. If a rewari goes soft, ten seconds in a warm (not hot) oven crisps it again; if it smells stale or tastes of the tin, it is finished.

Serving. Rewari goes in a small bowl, never in the packet — the packet is for the shop, the bowl is for the home. Chikki bars go on a plate, broken, not whole: a broken bar invites a second piece, a whole bar dares you to finish it. For a dawat, mix all three in one large bowl with a few plain peanuts on top — the bowl empties faster than any single sweet would.

What is the difference between rewari, gajak and chikki?

Rewari is til and gur rolled into small balls; gajak is til and sugar pressed into a flat slab; chikki is peanuts set in gur as a brittle bar. Rewari is dark and chewy, gajak is pale and snappy, chikki shows whole peanuts in every bite.

Which rewari is the Chakwal original?

Pehlwan Rewari is the famous Chakwal original, sold in 1kg packs — but it is currently out of stock on the shop (1kg Rs 1,100, 500g Rs 600). The in-stock Chakwal Rewari, 250g at Rs 300, is made in the same til-and-gur tradition and is the one to buy today.

How much does peanut chikki cost?

Peanut chikki is Rs 650 for 250g, Rs 1,300 for 500g and Rs 2,600 for 1kg on the shop, in stock. An earlier brief listed Rs 450 — that price was wrong, and the live shop price on 9 November 2026 is Rs 650 for 250g.

Is gajak sold on Khan Dry Fruits?

No — gajak is not sold as a named product on either the Shopify or the Laravel shop. This guide describes it so you can recognise it, but it cannot cost it from the shop. Buy rewari or chikki from the shop, or buy a gajak slab from your local bazaar sweet-maker.

How long do rewari and chikki keep?

Three to four weeks in an airtight tin, kept cool and dry, in winter. Keep them out of the fridge and out of damp air — moisture makes both sweets soft and sticky. Eat within two weeks in damp weather, and throw away anything that smells stale.

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