Indian sweets are often described as very sweet, but the impression is partly created by aroma rather than by sugar. Cardamom, rose and saffron change how the sugar present is perceived.
Most of flavor arrives through the nose
The tongue registers a short list of tastes. Everything else comes from volatile compounds traveling from the mouth up to the olfactory receptors while eating.
Those compounds are read alongside the taste signal, and the brain merges them into a single experience rather than reporting them separately.
An aroma repeatedly encountered with sugar therefore starts to carry sweetness itself, which is a learned association rather than a chemical one.
Some aromas amplify sweetness directly
Vanilla is the familiar example in American baking, where its presence makes a batter taste sweeter without any change in sugar.
Cardamom and rose function similarly in Indian sweets, and saffron adds a warmth that reads as richness. None of them contribute measurable sugar.
This is why reducing sugar in such a recipe fails badly if the aromatics are also reduced, and works surprisingly well if they are increased.
Aromatics are volatile and time-sensitive
The compounds involved evaporate readily, so cardamom ground days ago delivers a fraction of what freshly crushed pods deliver.
Heat drives them off too, which is why these are usually added near the end of cooking or stirred into a syrup off the flame.
Rose water in particular fades quickly and is best added last, since a long simmer removes most of what was added.
Sourcing them in the US
Green cardamom pods are stocked by American supermarkets in small expensive jars and by Indian groceries in far larger bags at a lower cost per ounce.
Food-grade rose water sits in international or Middle Eastern aisles, and strength varies considerably between brands, so adding cautiously and tasting is the sensible approach.
Saffron is sold by weight in tiny quantities everywhere. Steeping the threads in a spoonful of warm milk before use extracts far more than crumbling them in dry.
Balancing rather than reducing
Fat blunts sweetness, so a richer sweet tolerates more sugar before it becomes cloying, which is part of why these desserts carry ghee or cream.
Salt in small amounts suppresses bitterness and sharpens other flavors, and a pinch does more for a sweet than a spoonful of sugar removed.
Texture matters as well: a grainy sweet delivers sugar to the tongue in bursts and reads as sweeter than a smooth one with identical composition.