Persian Confections: Sohan, Gaz and the Sweet Heritage of Iran

Persia gave the world some of its most precious ingredients — saffron, rose water, pistachio — and it is in its confections that these treasures find their most sublime expression. The art of Persian confectionery dates back over 2,500 years, rooted in the Achaemenid courts where sweets were considered offerings worthy of kings and gods.

Unlike Arab or Turkish pastries, Persian confections stand apart through their refined minimalism. The recipes are often deceptively simple in appearance — a handful of noble ingredients, transformed with absolute mastery — yet yield a gustatory complexity that surprises and delights. Saffron colours and perfumes, rose water softens and soothes, pistachio brings colour and crunch.

In the UAE, where the Iranian community has been deeply rooted for centuries (the ports of Dubai and Sharjah have historically been centres of Persian trade), these confections are not exotic — they are part of the local heritage. The souks of Deira overflow with Iranian confectionery shops where the fragrance of saffron and rose water greets you at the threshold.

Gaz (گز) is perhaps the most fascinating Persian confection, because its key ingredient comes directly from nature. Gaz is a white nougat made from gazangebin — a resinous substance secreted by an insect that feeds on the tamarisk tree (gaz-angobin), a shrub native to the mountainous regions around Isfahan.

This "dew honey," harvested by hand in the Zagros Mountains each spring, is blended with whipped egg whites, sugar, and rose water to create a white, airy, elastic paste. Whole Iranian pistachios or almonds are then folded in, and the mixture is shaped into bars or rounds coated in a thin layer of starch.

The texture of gaz is unique: neither quite nougat nor quite marshmallow, it offers an elastic resistance that melts slowly in the mouth, releasing waves of floral and nutty flavour. It is a sensory experience without parallel in world confectionery.

The finest gaz comes from workshops in Isfahan, where some families have carried on this tradition for over four generations. Quality depends entirely on the purity of the gazangebin — industrial versions substitute glucose syrup, with markedly inferior results.

Sohan (سوهان) is a crispy toffee that has become the culinary emblem of the holy city of Qom. Intensely golden in colour, studded with pistachios and slivered almonds, sohan concentrates everything most precious about Persian confectionery: saffron, clarified butter, cardamom, and Iran's finest nuts.

Preparing sohan requires considerable patience. A mixture of sugar, wheat germ, butter, and saffron is cooked slowly in large copper pots, stirred constantly for several hours until it reaches a caramel consistency. The mixture is then poured into thin discs, topped with pistachios and almonds, and left to cool until it achieves its characteristic crisp texture.

Several varieties of sohan exist:

• Sohan-e asali (honey sohan) — the most traditional version, with pure honey replacing part of the sugar
• Sohan-e loghmeh — bite-sized pieces, more convenient for snacking
• Sohan-e papion — bow-tie shaped, a modern invention that has become a classic

Sohan is the quintessential gift brought home by pilgrims visiting the shrines of Qom and Mashhad. In the UAE, it is highly sought after by the Iranian community and by connoisseurs of oriental confections alike.

If gaz and sohan represent grand occasions, other Persian confections grace everyday life with equally remarkable sweetness.

Nan-e nokhodchi (نان نخودچی) — literally "chickpea bread" — is a melt-in-your-mouth clover-shaped cookie made from chickpea flour, icing sugar, oil or butter, and cardamom. With its subtle sweetness and gently crumbling texture, it is the traditional accompaniment to Persian tea. Its four-leaf clover shape is achieved using hand-carved wooden moulds, a craft that is slowly disappearing.

Pashmak (پشمک) — meaning "wool" in Farsi — is Persian cotton candy, but infinitely more sophisticated. Strands of sugar are pulled and folded hundreds of times with toasted flour to create a mass of filaments as fine as silk, flavoured with rose water, saffron, or pistachio. Pashmak dissolves instantly on the tongue, leaving a perfumed whisper that vanishes like a dream.

These confections are ubiquitous during Nowruz (Persian New Year, March 21), where they adorn the haft-sin, the table of seven symbolic elements. In the UAE, Nowruz is celebrated lavishly by the Iranian community, and demand for traditional confections peaks every March.

If a single ingredient could capture the soul of Persian confectionery, it would be rose water (گلاب, golâb). Distilled from Damask roses cultivated in the gardens of Kashan and Meymand, Iranian rose water is considered the finest in the world — more concentrated, more fragrant, and more complex than its Turkish or Indian counterparts.

The rose harvest takes place in May, at dawn, when the petals are still heavy with dew. Traditional distillation in centuries-old copper stills is a community event — the Golâbgiri festival draws thousands of visitors to rose villages every spring.

In confectionery, rose water is never a mere added flavouring. It is a structural element that modifies texture, tempers excessive sweetness, and creates the immediately recognisable olfactory signature of Persian sweets. It appears in gaz, sohan, pashmak, bastani (saffron and rose water ice cream), faloodeh (vermicelli sorbet), and dozens of other creations.

At Le Miel d'Or, our Persian confections are sourced from artisans who use exclusively natural rose water from Kashan — no synthetic flavourings, no shortcuts. It is this authenticity that separates an ordinary confection from a genuine Persian experience.