Rituparna Ghosh Chapter 1: The Sweetest Soil The story of Bengal’s mishti begins not in a city sweet shop or royal palace, but in the soft, fertile fields where rice and sugarcane sway under a golden sun. Here, in the flat floodplains of the Ganges delta, nature gifted Bengal with everything needed to create sweetness—abundant water, rich soil, and a climate generous enough to grow grains, fruits, and palms. And so, long before the arrival of refined sugar or dairy-based sweets, Bengal already knew the art of celebrating with what it had: jaggery, coconut, and milk.   In ancient Bengal,…