Cranberry, orange pulp, chocolate, strawberry, blueberry... A significant number of people picked up fusion sweets for their Bhai Dooj and Bhai Phonta buys this year, owners of sweet shops said.
Many families celebrated the occasion on Tuesday and others will observe it on Wednesday.
While sandesh has been the most favoured pick among fusion mishtis, the owners of some sweet shops said their blueberry dahi and mihidana tart are a hit this year as a sizeable section of buyers are looking for “something different”.
“Fusion mishti such as the dark chocolate variety that offers a taste of the traditional sandesh with chocolate and cranberry sandesh has been among the most favoured picks this time,” said Partha Nandy of Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandy, the north Kolkata sweet shop that has been in the business since 1844.
Despite being feted for its traditional sweets, Nakur has not been able to resist the call for change.
“For a pack of six different types of sweets, patrons are opting for fusion varieties for four items, while the rest are traditional ones like Jalbhara,” Nandy said.
The toss-up between traditional varieties like norom pak sandesh and rosogolla and the new-age fusion delicacies has always played out ahead of major occasions in Kolkata.
Several shop owners said the demand for the new-age sandesh, doi or even rosogolla, which are available in myriad flavours, has been more than previous years.
“There is a growing trend among a section of buyers to shift from sweets made of kheer to that of chhana or cottage cheese. Diwali offerings this year saw sandesh of various types and forms replacing kaju barfi,” a shop owner said.
Nilanjan Ghosh of Mithai, a sweet shop in Ballygunge, said: “We sold five packs of blueberry doi this time for every 10 packs of traditional doi.”
On usual days, the ratio of traditional to blueberry doi would be 10 to 3.
Shop owners said a significant number of customers were keen to try something new and different even on occasions like bhai phonta, when traditional and once-forgotten varieties of sweets are usually in high demand.
Some said that earlier they had to make a few forgotten varieties of Wesdt Bengal’s sweets such as Chandrakala for Bhai Phonta, even though the process of preparing them is complicated.
Shops specialising in north Indian sweets, too, reported a tendency among customers to opt for new varieties, though there is still demand for Kaju Katli, Badam Halwa and Dodha Burfi.
“Usually, around this time our customers look for traditional sweets from West Bengal. But this year we noticed a good demand for other varieties as well, including fusion products such as strawberry sandesh and saffron sandesh,” said Prabhu Shankar Agarwal of Haldiram Bhujiawala.
“Sitaphal and blueberry sandesh are in high demand this time,” said Parikshit Gupta of Gupta Brothers.
“Customers are looking for mishti with natural flavours and less sugar. We had to start making items to cater to the choice,” he said.