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Diwali mithais 101: A mix of old and new

While sweet shops in Lucknow are offering modern bakery varieties to patrons, bakers have made room for some traditional mithais too

Updated on: Nov 10, 2023 07:40 PM IST
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Something that’s synonymous with Diwali other than light is inarguably sweets. While traditional sweets still continue to be festival favourites, some international varieties and bakery items have also gained popularity in recent times. In fact, a lot of leading sweet shops in the city now have in-house bakeries, while bakeries, on the other hand, have started offering “traditional, yet modern mithais” to their patrons.

Traditional with an exotic twist

Heavy rush at a sweet shop in Lucknow (HT Photo)
Heavy rush at a sweet shop in Lucknow (HT Photo)

Turkish dessert Baklava introduced by Danbro by Mr Brown in 2011 apparently started the trend of bakeries selling sweets. “Since then, we have innovated with a lot of items along with different types of baklavas. This year, we have introduced traditional sweets, but not authentic khoya ones. The laddoos are in mango, chocolate, cranberry, white chocolate and roasted almond flavours,” says Tanushree Gupta, founder-director, Danbro by Mr Brown. A mithai team has been put in place especially for the launch of the new range this Diwali, she adds.

Old is gold

The sweets shops that don’t have in-house bakeries are focusing on traditional sweets and dry fruits.

“People want traditional sweets when it comes to festivals. Since shelf-life is a problem, sweets with more dry fruits work better. We don’t have bakery items, but our exotic dry fruit laddoos work well,” says Ved Prakash, Classic Radhey Sweets.

Ravindra Gupta from Chhappan Bhog says, “High-quality sweets such as meva bites, fruit-based sweets made with fig, orange, kiwi, dates and exotic fruits, with no artificial sugar, is what people ask for the most. Traditional sweets work too.”

After rebranding, JJ Baking Co has come up with a range of sweets this festive season. “Besides a range of baklawas, what we have introduced this season are sweets with mango, cranberry, pineapple, kiwi and cashew-almond fusions. We also have paan, gulkand and strawberry-flavoured sweets,” says Jasjeev Kohli, owner, JJ Baking Co.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Deep Saxena

Deep Saxena writes on Bollywood, OTT, television, food and culture for the daily Entertainment & Lifestyle supplement, HT City.

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