An Heera Singh Jeewan Singh gift box — barfi, laddu and dry-fruit pieces in the shop's own wrappers, on a Kumaoni-print sleeve

Est. 1805 · on record since 1887

हीरा सिंह जीवन सिंह

Six generations of the same
sweetness.

Almora: Lala Bazaar
Haldwani: Talli Bamori
Generations: 6, unbroken

[01]The story

A lineage of craftsmanship.

Six names, one counter.

First generation

Bhavani Das

Laid the foundation

The shop begins with him — a halwai in Lala Bazaar whose devotion to traditional confectionery started everything that followed. The family traces its origins to 1805; the records that survive begin in 1887.

Faded archive photograph of the sweet stall dressed with garlands, trays of mithai laid out along a cloth-covered table

Second generation

Ram Lal

Carried it forward

His son, who kept the craft exactly as devotedly as he had received it. It was Ram Lal who came back from a Badrinath pilgrimage with the sweet that would become Almora's Singori.

Archive photograph of a shopkeeper seated at the counter behind trays of freshly made sweets

Third generation

Heera Singh

The first name over the door

The mantle passed to him, and with it the standard: flavour, purity, authenticity — not merely recipes. His name is still the first one on the board.

Archive photograph of two men of different generations together behind the shop counter

Fourth generation

Jeewan Singh

The second name over the door

Father and son together on the signboard, and it has stayed that way since. By now the shop's Bal Mithai and Chocolate were not simply products — they were part of how the region recognised itself.

Archive photograph of sweets being weighed on a brass balance at the counter

Fifth generation

Navneet Singh

Renewed the craft

Son of Jeewan Singh. He brought new vision without trading away the tradition — and reworked Khechuwa, the sweet Almora calls Kichu, into the version the town now takes as its own.

Archive photograph of a customer being served at the counter beneath the painted shop sign

Sixth generation

Gaurav Singh Bisht

The present chapter

Son of Navneet Singh, and fifteen years in advertising and brand building before he came to the counter. The authenticity stays rooted in Lala Bazaar; what is new is the presentation — and a second branch at Talli Bamori, Haldwani.

The Heera Singh Jeewan Singh shopfront under its painted signboard, hung with festival garlands and busy with customers

Generations

139

Years on record

40+

Sweets made daily

Kumaon counters

[02]Signatures

The ones that leave first.

Bal Mithai

Roasted khoya fudge rolled in white sugar pearls. The sweet that earned Almora its name — nobody in the hills orders anything else first.

Singori

Khoya folded into a cone of maloo leaf. Second only to Bal Mithai here, and the leaf is half the flavour.

Chocolate

The other one the family has spent generations getting right. Cut thick, set dark, nothing borrowed from a bar.

Malai Ghewar

A honeycomb disc soaked and crowned with thickened malai, pistachio and a sheet of silver.

Milk Cake

Milk cooked down until it catches and grains. Cut into slabs, never squares.

Kaju Katli

Cashew ground to silk, set thin, cut on the diagonal while still warm.

[03]The rest of the counter

Forty-odd more, made the same morning.

Imarti

Cham Cham

Kaju Laddu

Khajoor

Jalebi

Biscoff Barfi

Mewa Bite

Anarkali

Plain Ghewar

Kesar Malai Ghewar

Ghewar

Nest Baklava

Pyramid Baklava

Square Baklava

Chocolate Bite

[04]Real inventors of Singori

Wrapped in a maloo leaf.

A sweet that came back changed.

Singori — khoya folded into cones of green maloo leaf, each topped with a clove

It started somewhere else

Singori was first made in Tehri Garhwal, in a different style and a different form. That much the history is clear about — and the family has never claimed otherwise.

A pilgrimage, and a season behind a stranger's counter

Returning from Badrinath, Ram Lal Thakur Das took temporary work at a confectioner's shop and met the sweet in its older forms. He was already a halwai. He watched, adapted, refined.

What Almora changed

Home again, the changes were small and decisive. Khoya set in Almora's own climate, and the particular fragrance of maloo leaf around it. What came out was not an adaptation. It was a transformation.

Second only to Bal Mithai

Like a sapling nursed until it takes, the sweet became the region's — one of the most sought-after in Kumaon, behind only the Bal Mithai that made Almora famous.

[06]Occasions

Most of what we make leaves in someone else’s hands.

Weddings

Trays built to a count, packed the night before, delivered to the venue rather than the house. Orders taken up to six weeks ahead.

Plan a wedding order

Diwali

The busiest fortnight of the year. Boxes are assembled to order from the morning batch — we stop taking new ones when the karahi runs out.

See festival boxes

Rakhi

Small boxes, posted early. Bal mithai and milk cake travel best — they are the two that arrive exactly as they left.

Send a Rakhi box

Corporate

Bulk gifting with your own card inside the lid. Plain packaging if you would rather the sweets did the talking.

Request a quote

[07]Voices

“My grandfather bought bal mithai here on his way home from work. I buy the same thing, from the same counter, in a box that looks almost exactly the same.”

Placeholder name

Customer since — / third generation

The Kumaon Himalayan range, seen from the hills near Almora

[08]Visit

Come taste 139 years.

Order on WhatsApp Directions to Almora Directions to Haldwani

Almora

Lala BazaarAlmora, Uttarakhand 263601

+91 00000 00000

Haldwani

Talli BamoriHaldwani, Uttarakhand 263139

+91 00000 00001

When

Monday — Saturday · 8:00–21:30
Sunday · 8:00–22:00

Six generations of the samesweetness.