When Harshit Agrawal used to be all of 10 years outdated, his favorite passion used to be sitting at his grandfather’s mithai store off Mumbai’s Elphinstone Street. Overweight legs swinging within the air — as they couldn’t but achieve the bottom — pretending to rely money and secretly stealing a mithai or two from the glass instances make Harshit’s fondest reminiscences.
When his father took over the store following his grandfather’s sickness, Harshit recounts how ‘Janta Dairy’ assumed the position of the 3rd kid of the circle of relatives, rising along the lads. “He [my father] cherished it dearly,” he smiles.
It used to be this ardent love for the mithai industry that pressured Harshit and his more youthful brother Tanay to do the whole thing of their energy to stay the legacy alive when it used to be threatened amidst the pandemic. The brother duo aren’t halwais — Harshit is a movie manufacturer and Tanay a literature graduate — however that didn’t forestall them from trying out new flooring with their cloud kitchen Pistabarfi that they introduced on the height of the pandemic.
Was once the foray into the mithai scene difficult? “Now not in case you grew up in my circle of relatives the place it’s in our DNA,” laughs Harshit.
The adventure from being blameless youngsters taking part in round in Janta Dairy to teaming as much as save the circle of relatives industry is a memorable one for the brothers. They proportion their tale with The Higher India.
A candy experience
What’s your favorite mithai? For Harshit it’s kalakand.
He recounts Tanay’s and his youth being bundled in a repertoire of flavours of various goodies and savouries. The locals of Mumbai, in particular Elphinstone Street, outstanding Janta Dairy via two issues — an aroma of goodies wafting out and a smiling guy who used to be a continuing fixture on the counter.
Since 1968, Harshit’s father has had a front-row seat to the evolution of Elphinstone Street and Mumbai alike. And the store has noticed a trajectory of its personal — from a dairy that bought the realm’s ideal high quality milk, curd, paneer, and lassi to a store that added mithais and samosas to its checklist of things.
The men cherished spending all their unfastened time right here.
Even though Harshit by no means educated as a halwai, he recounts anecdotes that had been silently shaping this ability in him. Hours spent sampling the mithais — mawa pedhas, balusaahi (a crispy candy made with flour and butter), kaju katli, motichoor laddoo, kalakand (a candy cheese confection), Bombay halwa, Mahim halwa, dry mysore pak (which in comparison to its rainy counterpart has a biscuit texture), dink laddoo (made the usage of resin, nuts and ghee) and methi laddoo — became Harshit right into a gourmet of goodies at an early age.
He remembers how he’d once in a while indicate to his father when a batch of goodies didn’t “style fairly proper”. He provides, “My father would instantly discard the batch. I’ve by no means noticed him attempt to salvage a batch of mithai via blending the outdated batch with the brand new — a commonplace act amongst maximum mithai makers. As a substitute, he’d undergo the losses however ensure that his shoppers had been getting the most efficient.”
And thus grew the celebrity of Janta Dairy.
The brothers rarely keep in mind seeing their father at house. Harshit is going on, “You spot, my father has long gone to the store each and every unmarried day, ever since he took over in Magnificence 12. He hasn’t ever overlooked paintings. It’s house, store, and again house for dinner. Even on Sundays, the regimen continues.”
Till sooner or later, the regimen stopped. The COVID pandemic had prolonged its achieve to Mumbai.
Reimagining old-school classics
It used to be disheartening for the lads to observe their father, who cherished the dairy, now sit down at house. Trade used to be at an rock bottom. And someplace, Harshit felt their circle of relatives legacy used to be going to falter except they stepped in.
Pistabarfi used to be born out of a quest to avoid wasting a heirloom industry. Even though trying out new waters, the brothers say there used to be completely no friction. Tanay introduced his experience in coping with the logistics, whilst Harshit used to be answerable for the inventive facet of the challenge.
The theory used to be for the circle of relatives to proceed promoting mithai via a cloud kitchen method till Janta Dairy used to be able to reopen. The primary two years weren’t such a lot about gross sales however construction a emblem voice, says Tanay.
Two issues would set Pistabarfi aside, the brothers determined. The packaging and the standard of components.
Elaborating at the first, Harshit says, “The mithai scene in India is an overly unorganised marketplace. I’m speaking concerning the early 2000s when there wasn’t numerous emphasis on packaging. Value-cutting used to be rampant. Lately, the scene has reasonably stepped forward. When you see the standard mithai containers they in most cases characteristic designs like a cow, milk, and many others. The imagery isn’t thrilling.”
He provides, “Even manufacturers that concentrate on excellent packaging don’t inform a tale via it. There’s no voice.”
The second one ache level used to be that of high quality.
“It’s difficult for the mithais in Mumbai to rival that during different towns. It’s because, for high quality mithai, high quality uncooked fabrics are wanted. Those are dear. If hired, this may in flip build up the price of the mithai. So, maximum mithai makers lodge to components that may lend a hand them reach a steadiness between cost-effectiveness and style,” he stocks.
Pistabarfi is constructed on addressing those issues. The brothers emphasise that the theory at the back of the challenge has all the time been to stick with their conventional roots and play to their strengths.
Taking the legacy ahead
Whilst designing the logo id, Harshit used to be transparent that high quality had to be top class, which could also be why Pistabarfi merchandise retail at a better fee than maximum mithais.
The logo retails 3 merchandise — pistabarfi constructed from overwhelmed Peshawari pistachios, kaju katli (made with top class cashew nuts and 400 g of sugar by contrast to the 600 g variants available in the market) and gur laddoo made with jowar, bajra, nachni, wheat, rice, jaggery and ghee.
The rationale at the back of this restricted variety, says Tanay, is high quality. “We’re very certain of the 3 mithais we have now. It takes numerous time to do R&D and to crack the proper style. Additionally, a few of those recipes were carried down from era to era and that makes it particular. We want to come with Mysore pak subsequent, trials for which were underway for fairly a while now.”
And their packaging parallels the mithais with regards to attract.
Elaborating on how he got here throughout this concept of the usage of Gond artwork at the mithai containers, Harshit says, “I stumbled upon this type of artwork whilst aiding director Devashish Makhija on his brief movie again in 2015. He talented me the ebook ‘The Night time Lifetime of Bushes’ which featured Gond artwork in it. I used to be so taken up via this symbol and its conventional linkages that once bobbing up with the packaging for Pistabarfi, I were given the picture authorized from Tara Books, they usually had been more than pleased to oblige.”
So, is Pistabarfi the brand new Janta Dairy?
“Completely now not,” says Harshit. He’s company that the previous used to be created as an ode to the latter’s legacy with a reasonably other method. “The top shopper may be very other for each puts. Janta Dairy objectives the locals who’ve been coming to the store since my grandfather’s time. It’s an overly repeat clientele. However, Pistabarfi has a distinct segment target audience.”
Lately, Pistabarfi delivers everywhere India and is easily on its technique to bobbing up with value-added snacking merchandise that smash the parable of mithais best being a festive reason why. For example, take the kaju katli mithai bar, a chocolate bar-shaped product this is in reality kaju katli!
“One can stay it of their pocket and snack on it once they wish to. It isn’t essentially what I might name ‘fusion’. It’s extra like we’re making merchandise which can be out there,” he stocks.
However even whilst the brothers have damaged into the mithai section with their distinctive cloud kitchen method, Harshit minces no phrases when he says it’s silly to think one may just convey an entire shift.
“We’re so familiar with simply strolling down the street and getting into a mithai store, asking to style the more than a few goodies as we take our select. It’s an emotion. That’s what Janta Dairy will all the time give its shoppers. I’m now not going to switch that,” he says.
Talking about looking at his sons step in, Narottam (56) says, “I’ve been on the store since I used to be in Magnificence 12. That’s the one fact I do know and lived for a lot of these years. My concept used to be to drag via for so long as I may just as it’s part of my id and shedding the store would imply shedding part of myself. My sons avoided that from going down.”
“What they have got carried out is fairly other from what I can have ever imagined. It’s distinctive and I believe proud as a father,” he remarks.
Edited via Pranita Bhat