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Sweetshops flooded with monsoon delights
Varieties of ghewar, pheni and andarsey ki goli are the most sought-after sweet delicacies these days.
The sweet shops in the state capital are full of sawan delights these days. Seasons’ special and the most sought-after sweets are varieties of ghewar, pheni and andarsey ki goli. Sweet shops are innovating with ghewar toppings, its portion size and packaging to catch people’s attention.
Ram Asrey Sweets, a 206-year-old sweet shop, has introduced blueberry, orange, coconut, mango, rose toppings to their existing flavours of chocolate, pista, paneer, badam, saffron, malai and regular. Its owner Pankaj Gupta is candid in saying that 90% of the business is of plain and malai-kesar ghewar.
“We can easily use top-end dry fruits and real-gold foil and make it worth multi-thousand but all that is gimmick. I tell my customers to buy plain one, which has more shelf-life, and then add any home-made malai or rabri and garnish with dry fruit as per taste,” Gupta says. He recalls that as a kid he used to savour it with milk.
Chhappan Bhog, another sweet shop in city, has come up with is innovative packaging and sizes. “Mini ghewars, due to its single-use portion size, is in huge demand. Gift hampers comprising of all three sawan special items are selling like hot cakes,” says Ravindra Gupta.
Telling us about the sweets connection with tradition he adds, “The most auspicious day is Teej, when family members take the sweet to their daughter’s home. The maximum sale of these delicacies is seen on Teej and then on Raksha Bandhan,” he says. The tradition of ghewar comes from Rajasthan and Braj region as sawan or rainy season is celebrated in these otherwise dry areas, he adds.
Not just sweetshops but small eateries in lanes and bylanes prepare andarsey ki goli all day long in small portion.
Deepak Sahu who runs a makeshift roadside stall in Chowk exclusively during this season admits that he is doing good business.
“Only from July to October, I do these sawan special delicacies and remaining months take up catering assignments or set-up chaat stall. Despite have all top sweet shops in this hub, we have customers coming in big cars. We have customers coming from Agra, Varanasi and Delhi also. Our sweets are also in big demand just like big shops, the only difference is we prepare them in refined oil where as they make in ghee,” he says.
He serves two types of pheni, jaggery and sugar andarsa (big ones), andarsa goli, khoya andarsa goli, milk cake, khoya barfi and pedey while ghewar is made on orders.
“Main reason for this delicacy to sell in this season is its connection with rains. The more it rains and better these delicacies taste. Pheni and ghewar is made from refined flour while andarsa is made from rice. But the natural blend of sponginess and crispness comes from the moisture,” says Utkarsh Gupta of Classic Radhey Lal Sweets.
Advocate Prateek Saxena says ghewar and andarsa is his weakness. “I have controlled diabetes but when I see ghewar, I put all dieting plans aside and always take a big portion. Akhirkaar saal main sirf kuch hi dino main khane ko milti hai!” he says.
