Tirunelveli Halwa is a South Tamil Nadu dessert made from milk extracted from wheat berries with a shelf life of up to 30 days, . It is customary for those who visit Tirunelveli, a city in Tamil Nadu, to purchase a packet of halwa from one of the thousands of shops selling the hot and gooey sweet.
It’s almost ironical that this once powerful city during the reign of the Pandyas and home to the historic Nellaiappar temple that dates back to 700 A.D. is better known today for its halwa. Ironical because the halwa didn’t arrive in Tirunelveli before the end of the 19th Century.
The specialty of the Tirunelveli halwa is that it is made of wheat and cooked in the water from the Tambiraparani River which is nourished with Herbals from Western Ghats especially the Agasthiyar Hills (Courtallam Falls), the origin of Siddha Medicines.
The recipe of this wheat -based halwa is sure to raise your brows up and makes you to stick out your tongue. Though the original recipe or the formula is duplicated and copied throughout not only the country but even across the globe but still nothing can beat the taste got from the original town.
Infact there are even lot of other shops in and around Tirunelveli which is based on only making this halwa which cannot mark itself up to the grade of the Tirunelveli Halwa got from the Iruttukadai. The halwa got from this shop tastes unique. It is very difficult to copy the authentic halwa. Infact halwa can also be mentioned as a part of Tirunelveli legend.It has a shelf life of about a month.