16 Top Pick Traditional Georgian Desserts and Sweets 

When you think of traditional Georgian desserts, you might picture something sweet, rich, and unforgettable. But you won’t find the typical cakes and pastries you’re used to in Western countries. Instead, Georgian desserts and sweets offer unique flavors, often showcasing the country’s love for nuts, honey, and fruit, deserving a spot on your culinary bucket list.

In the era of brownies, crepes, cheesecakes, and strudels, individual national desserts seem to be in the shadows. However, among knowing the beautiful places to explore in the country or the staples of the traditional cuisine, I am sure as a visitor you are also interested in what kind of Georgian sweets you can try here.

Like the typical Georgian food, each region has a specific and native dessert. We have a deeply rooted tradition of seasonal eating and preserving food for the winter season. Therefore, most Georgian snacks are traditionally nut-based and meant to last longer periods.

Other confectioneries, such as halva, sweet pies, and cakes, are borrowed from different nationalities that have influenced local cuisine. For instance, several cakes, such as Honey Cake, Ponchiki, and Paska, are of Russian influence and the Soviet Union, while Pakhlava is a Georgian version of Turkish Baklava but has a different texture.

Seasonal preservation practice intensified even more during the Soviet Union, when making jams and spreads of various fruits for winter became a staple in every household.

Unfortunately, in the modern world, many traditional Georgian desserts and sweets have been lost and replaced by widespread sweet treats. Today, they only exist in Georgian recipe books, but they are rarely seen on the menus of Georgian restaurants.

Instead, you will mostly find carrot cake, cheesecake, apple pie, ice cream, waffles, brownies, etc. Half the menus will only have a fresh fruit plate, Churchkhela, or a Georgian Charozi/Nughbari platter – a mix of Churchkhela, Tklapi, dried fruits, and nuts.

That said, several venues offer some of the sweets listed in this post, and whenever you see them on the menus, I suggest you order. Various small bakeries and supermarkets, such as Carrefour, Goodwill, and Agrohub in Tbilisi, also offer several traditional sweets and pastries.

Another great way of trying these traditional desserts is at festivals like Tbilisoba, held in autumn in Tbilisi, or at various pop-up markets and expos.

16 traditional Georgian desserts and sweets

Churchkhela

Churchkhla, a traditional Georgian sweet often referred to as Georgian Sneakers, is a grape juice and nut snack that resembles a candle. It is chewy, sweet, and quite filling.

There are two types of Churchkhela – eastern and western. The first uses walnuts, with Kakheti making the most delicious, while the latter uses hazelnuts. Guria even has its own name for it – Janjukha. The grape juice, or Badagi, and the preparation method also differ. Kakhetian Churchkhela uses red Badagi and wheat flour to thicken it. In contrast, Guria uses white Badagi and corn flour for thickening.

However, one aspect is always the same: the slightly wet nuts are stringed on a thread, hung for drying, then dipped in Badagi, and hung again for drying for several weeks. Because they are rich in proteins but lightweight to carry, they were an essential part of Georgian soldiers during the wars. Even today, they’re an ideal snack for day trips or hikes.

Today, there are dozens of variations of Churchkhela made from different fruit juices, including pomegranate, but for a traditional one, opt for those made from the Badagi of Saperavi, Rqatsiteli, Tsolikauri, and Adesa grapes.

Pelamushi or Tatara

Pelamushi or Tatara is the name of the same Georgian dessert made from Badagi (grape juice). The difference is that the West calls it Pelamushi and the East Tatara. It’s best described as a grape pudding prepared from condensed juice thickened with flour. Pelamushi recipe calls for corn flour, while Tatara uses wheat.

The juice is boiled with flour to help it thicken without adding additional sugar. The bubbling Badagi requires continuous stirring over low heat. Once ready, we pour the hot liquid onto the plates or into molds and sprinkle with walnuts. The result is a soft, sweet dessert that can be eaten warm or chilled.

Qada

Qada, also spelled Kada, is a Caucasian pastry and a delightful fusion of pie and bread, making it a unique dessert. For many hundred years, it was prepared for religious festivities and weddings in Georgia. Therefore, it was a ritual dish, but today, it has become a favorite pastry for many locals. 

At its core, Qada is made with a soft, buttery dough prepared from wheat flour and pig fat. Depending on the filling, the dough can be either sweet or savory. Nowadays, Qada refers to a sweet pastry with a mixed flour, butter, and sugar filling; almost no one uses pig fat anymore.

Generally, any pastry filling is called ‘guli’ in Georgian or ‘heart’, and the pastries with a filling are called Gulsartiani. Well-prepared Qada filling is so essential to the pastry that we even have a traditional Georgian proverb that translates as “If the heart is good, Qada is eaten with two hands.”

It refers to desire and determination because when you want to do something with all your heart, you do it with both hands to make it better, faster, and of excellent quality.

Qada recipes, shapes, and sizes vary by region but generally have the same filling. They can be round, layered, elongated, or intricately designed. Some types of Qada can also include raisins, walnuts, or hazelnuts. One particular type considered as “special” is the nine-layered Qada. 

In the historic Meskhetian cuisine of the present-day Samskhe-Javakheti region, Qada is typically round and made of thin layers of dough sporadically poured over a butter and sugar mixture.

Qada can be found at small bakeries or supermarkets with a bakery rather than restaurants.

Gozinaki

Gozinaki is an essential Georgian dessert for Christmas and New Year festivities. After Churchkhela, it is one of the most popular Georgian desserts among locals. It’s made of cut walnuts caramelized in honey and rarely prepared outside these celebrations, so your only chance to try it is during this time of year.

Like many Georgian dishes and sweets, every family has its own Gozinaki recipe and technique. Some like it softer with fine-cut pieces, while my family enjoys it rigid and sturdy with slightly chunkier walnuts.

During the festive season, Gozinaki is sold in grocery stores and supermarkets. You might find peanut and sunflower seed variations at other times, but that’s not the traditional.

Nazuki

Nazuki is one of my least favorite Georgian desserts. I find it dull and unspecial, but many locals and visitors love it.

Nazuki is a sweet traditional Georgian bread with a few raisings inside. It is flavored with cinnamon, clove, cardamom, and nutmeg and glazed with eggs and sugar. As flavorful as it sounds, I don’t think many sellers stick to the original recipe Like the bread, it is typically baked in tone ovens.

It is particularly popular in the small town of Surami in the Shida Karti region. Thus, it is a popular stopover spot when traveling to western Georgia from the east (for example, to Kutaisi or Batumi). A few dozen bakeries line the main road and sell freshly baked Nazuki. Outside Surami, finding Nazuki is quite challenging, but a few bakeries in Tbilisi offer them.

Pakhlava

Pakhlava is a Georgian version of the Turkish Baklava, a layered dessert made of filo pastry, loaded with chopped nuts, and sweetened with honey or syrup. It was one of the most famous sweets of the Ottoman Empire, hence its appearance in Georgian cuisine.

However, Georgian Pakhlava is slightly different and can also include raisings. It is widespread nationwide so that you can find it at various bakeries.

Kaklutcha

Although not as famous as Churchkhela or Gozinaki, Kaklutcha is a notable Georgian sweet known as Orbeliani’s Candy, i.e., Royal Candy.

Its regal name reflects its origins as a delicacy crafted by Princess Mariam Jambakur-Orbeliani, a 19th–20th-century noblewoman, feminist, and daughter of the celebrated Georgian poet Vakhtang Orbeliani of the House of Orbeliani.

This unique treat is made from just two main ingredients: walnuts and caramelized sugar. Despite its simplicity, Kaklutcha delivers a delightful combination of rich flavors and contrasting textures.

Orbeliani’s Candy was so popular with the elite back then that they were considered the most precious gift you could receive from the family.

Today, Kaklutcha is sadly not widely available in shops or restaurants in Tbilisi. You can only try them in Shemomechama and Cafe Leila or order them directly from Orbelianebis Nugbari.

Korkoti

Korkoti, also known as Kolio or Tsindali, is a ceremonial dish to honor the deceased and is often included in the menu of the funeral supra feast. This porridge-like sweet is traditionally made with honey, raisins, and wheat grains, but each region adds its own twist to the recipe and can include raisins and dried fruits such as apricots or cherries.

Korkoti originated in Constantinople in the 4th century, when Romans defaced Christians’ fasting food to prevent them from practicing their religious traditions. Instead, Christians found salvation in boiled wheat and honey, which became their only food products for a week. 

It’s pretty tricky to find it in the restaurants in Tbilisi or nationwide, but it occasionally pops up at various cafés. 

Oven-baked pumpkin and quince

My dad comes from the Guria region, where, as a child, they’d bake pumpkins in the fireplace and eat them as a dessert because pumpkins from western Georgia are sweeter and get a caramelized cover. In the Adjara region, on the Black Sea Coast of the country, they also bake whole pumpkins carved out from the inside and stuffed with rice, raisins, and dried fruit.

Many locals also love adding honey and cut walnuts to already-baked pumpkins or coating them with cinnamon and cloves before baking them. It is a very homecooked meal, but some of the guesthouses might serve it.

Unlike pumpkin, baked quince is more common at various cafes when they are in season during autumn in Tbilisi. As a kid, baking quince from our garden on top of the woodburning stove was a staple in the hard times we call the ‘dark 90’s’ period. Besides being very flavorful, it would infuse the house with a beautiful aroma and scent.

My mom even recalls adding raisins and walnuts to the baked quince when she lived as a kid in Telavi, the capital of Kakheti. 

Nowadays, cafes that offer baked quince on their menus typically serve them flavored with spices and a good amount of custard. Pur Pur at Gudiashvili Square is one of the cafes in Tbilisi that offers a pretty tasty one.

Tklapi

When fruits were abundant in spring and summer, Georgians prepared for winter by preserving them in various forms. One way was to create fruit leather, which is known in Georgian as Tklapi.

Made from all sorts of fruits, Tklapi can be sweet or sour. Cooked fruit puree is poured on a tray in a skinny layer and left to dry under the sun for a few days. The best ones are from Tkemali, plums, or apricots. Meskheti even makes a mulberry Tklapi.

Dried fruits

Chiri is a general term for dried fruits; dehydrating them under natural sunlight was another way to preserve them for winter. Apples, apricots, plums, and dogwoods were the main ones, followed by quince, figs, and persimmon.

While they might not be as popular as they used to be, dried figs and persimmons are essential Christmas and New Year festive tables.

Walnut and watermelon Muraba

Muraba is a traditional Georgian fruit preserve known for its thick, chunky texture. Unlike regular jam, Muraba is made with large pieces of seasonal fruits slowly cooked in sugar to release the juice and create syrup. The result is the liquidy, sweet side of syrup-soaked fruits with a rich, flavorful taste.

What makes Muraba unique is its versatility. Beyond eating it as a side accompanying a cup of tea, its intense sweetness and bold fruit flavors can elevate cakes or pancakes.

While there are dozens of types of Muraba from various fruits such as cherries, plums, quinces, berries, and figs, the most traditional and beloved type among locals is the walnut and watermelon-rind Muraba.

As surprising as it may seem, walnut muraba is a must-have dessert celebrated for its delicate texture and rich flavor. Green walnuts are peeled and boiled, but the process is complex and requires patience and care.

After peeling, the walnuts must soak under running water for three days to remove toxins, followed by 24 hours of drying. During this time, the walnuts turn a deep black, signaling they’re ready to be cooked.

Another interesting and quirky Muraba is made from watermelon rinds, which boast a delicate flavor. The Muraba is typically prepared when watermelon season peaks in July and August; however, not all watermelon rinds are suitable for the preserve. The fruit should have a thick rind so that you are left with wide, white skin after peeling it.

You’ll often find muraba served at breakfast tables in guesthouses across Georgia; some restaurants and cafes, especially the tea houses, serve them, and several are also manufactured in factories and sold at grocery stores and supermarkets.

Medoki

The Honey Cake, known as Medoki after its Russian name, has found its place among the delicious desserts of Georgia.

Though its roots trace back to 19th-century Russia, where it was initially called Medovik, the recipe found its way to Georgia during the Soviet era.

The cake features thin layers of butter-based sponge cake generously filled with creamy frosting.

While the traditional Russian version uses sour cream for the filling, Georgian Medoki replaces it with milk cream, creating a uniquely sweet flavor. Burned honey, a key ingredient in cake and frosting, lends the dessert its rich, golden color and distinctive taste. The cake is often garnished with crumbs from leftover cake. Since there are variations of the Medoki, some might even include cut walnuts inside the layers.

You won’t have a problem finding it across the country. Many cafes and bakeries offer this irresistible treat year-round, making it easy to indulge whenever the craving strikes.

Paska

If you happen to be traveling to Georgia during Easter festivities, you’ll find Paska at almost every shop and Georgian bakery. This sweet bread takes the central stage of every Georgian family’s Easter table.

However, before Paska became widespread during the Soviet era, we baked Easter Qada—a sweet bread or pastry with a sweet filling made of flour, butter, and sugar. 

While Paska is popular across Orthodox countries during Easter, Georgia puts its unique spin on this festive bread. Georgian Paskas all follow a similar theme: big, round, and fluffy. However, the variations in flavor and presentation make them stand out.

The classic Georgian Paska is dusted with powdered sugar, while more elaborate versions are topped with icing or chocolate frosting and colorful sprinkles. Preferences for texture also differ—some enjoy a light, airy, brioche-style Paska, while others favor a buttery, crumbly version reminiscent of carrot cake.

Ponchiki

Various types of doughnuts are popular Eastern European desserts prepared in various shapes, sizes, and fillings. For instance, Polish cuisine has pazcki filled with fruit jams.

Ponchiki is my most favorite dessert that I can eat every day. Originally from Russia, it became part of Georgian food culture during Soviet times. The name translates to ‘donut,’ but it’s not the same as the iconic ring-shaped, glazed pastry you might know, and Georgian Ponchiki stands apart from its Russian counterpart.

While classic Russian Ponchiki is typically made without a filling or with fruit jam inside, the Georgian version is sweeter and filled with creamy custard. A light dusting of powdered sugar adds the finishing touch.

Despite its simplicity, baked Georgian ponchiki is delightfully tender and soft, melting in your mouth with every bite.

You can find it in various bakeries, but I usually have them at Puri Guliani cafe, either near the Dry Bridge or on the ground floor of Mtatsminda Park’s Funicular building. 

Pishki

Pishki is another version of Russian doughnuts, but it is ring-shaped instead of round and doesn’t have a custard filling. Even though they are small, they are pretty addictive when warm.

The dough for Pishki is made from sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. It is deep-fried in oil and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Several stalls across Tbilisi sell pishki, but I like the one at Aghmashenebeli Avenue (near Marjanishvili metro) called Modu’s Pishka on Google Maps.